


are we the hunters? (or are we the prey?)

by sacredoblivion



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Survival, Alternate Universe - Teenagers, Alternate Universe - The 100 (TV) Fusion, Angst with a Happy Ending, BAMF everyone, Everyone's badass, F/F, F/M, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Implied Sexual Content, Light Angst, Loki is misunderstood, M/M, Medical Inaccuracies, Minor Character Death, Odin (Marvel)'s A+ Parenting, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Rated for Deadpool's Language, The Avengers Are Good Bros, Thor is a Cinnamon Roll, Underage Drinking, What Have I Done, Why Did I Write This?, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes, a fuckton of them probably, and immediately save everything, because they're avengers, don't worry I'm not a monster, duh - Freeform, hopefully all the relationships get equal screentime, i think I'm done, i'm not even joking, idk how to explain, idk what this is, im saying this now so yall dont roast me in the comments later, it's a lot, it's incredible, kind of, loki and thor angst, marvel but in the 100, not really but what the fuck wade, so many terrible fathers, they ruin lives goddamnit, they're on the earth for the first time, whatever, yeah i'm done, yeah im a pussy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:27:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 60,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25358434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sacredoblivion/pseuds/sacredoblivion
Summary: A terrible nuclear war rocked the Earth, burning it, destroying it, and absolutely razing to the ground, emitting so much radiation that it was utterly impossible for any sort of life to remain on the planet. The surviving humans fled to space, and have lived in the twelve space stations and the SHIELD Helicarrier for the past century.However, oxygen supply on the Helicarrier has been decreasing, and so has other essentials. They need to find a solution, and fast. Their recent research has shown that the Earth may be habitable again, but they need to test if they can survive down there without any harmful reactions first.A hundred juvenile prisoners are sent down in a spacecraft to test if mankind can live on their home planet again. However, while they're down there, they realize something.They aren't the only human beings on Earth.
Relationships: Bruce Banner/Betty Ross, Brunnhilde | Valkyrie/Carol Danvers, Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton/Darcy Lewis, Gamora/Peter Quill, James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes/Natasha Romanov, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, Jane Foster/Thor, Loki & Thor (Marvel), Nakia (Black Panther)/T'Challa, Peter Parker/Wade Wilson, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Wanda Maximoff/Vision, the relationships of the og avengers will all get equal screentime
Comments: 25
Kudos: 55





	1. home

**Author's Note:**

> it's 3am right now. i was bored, and my mind did a thing, and this happened. i really don't know where i was going with this, maybe this might crash and burn, let's see. 
> 
> i was watching the 100 and i realized - the avengers would be pretty awesome at surviving on earth for the first time. and so this is what that is. it's mostly focused on the povs of the og six avengers, but there will be others as well, like bucky and wanda. in case you didn't read the tags (of course you didn't, why would you) i'm gonna try and include all the relationships, and make sure they all get fairly equal screentime. again, the og avengers' relationships are gonna have a lot more screentime than, let's say, gamora and quill, but bear with me.
> 
> hope it doesn't die, this may turn out to be an ugly baby, but a baby i won't abandon nonetheless :P

image credit: <https://nxghtmarefuel.tumblr.com/>

* * *

Steve was never one to back away from a fight, even if he was sorely undermatched. When he believed in something, he would defend it to the very end.

Which was why he'd ended up in jail.

He hadn't actually meant to punch Rumlow in the face - and break his nose - and dislocate his shoulder. But Steve had found him physically kicking around a couple of kids who were barely six years old, taking their brand-new shoes a watch (both expensive commodities, probably the only ones they could afford) and _then_ he'd insulted Bucky's mother when Bucky had tried to stop him.

Steve really couldn't hold back after that.

And then, when Rumlow's buddies joined him, it turned into a full-scale brawl, which was then pinned on Steve and Bucky. The only good thing out of all of that was the fact that Rumlow and his buddies were thrown into jail as well. 

Since they weren't eighteen, SHIELD couldn't put them on the death row, which was standard punishment on the Helicarrier. The surviving humans couldn't risk any mistakes, any rebels, any change in their perfect system, or else they all would die.

But everyone unanimously agreed that putting children on death row was inhumane, so they got to be put in holding cells instead. And once they turned eighteen, they were floated - tossed into space. That punishment was non-negotiable. It was a waiting game.

Steve's seventeenth birthday had just passed.

He leaned his head against the wall and sighed, letting his eyes flick over the bare room, furnished with just a bed, a cupboard and a tiny bathroom. At least they'd given him a pencil - paper was too precious to waste. He'd been sketching all over the walls of his room.

Currently, he was halfway through drawing the moon, lonely and desolate in a background of stars. He'd seen it only once. He'd seen the Earth only once as well - on his seventh birthday, when his ma got him special access and took him and Bucky to a viewing room, only three months before she died of severe sickness.

He wondered how life on Earth had been. The way it was described in their history textbooks, it was the most beautiful place in the universe. The SHIELD Helicarrier - the biggest and the most advanced civilian space station out of the twelve other civilian space stations - could barely hold a candle to it. He'd done many, many sketches of what he thought Earth had looked like.

Steve let his gaze wander over a portrait he'd done on the first day they'd shoved him into this cell - him when he was young, asthmatic, and a pathetic bag of bones, standing with his mother and his best friend. Sometimes he wished he could go back to being tiny and unproblematic. He'd have been way to small to cause any kind of damage to Rumlow, and therefore wouldn't have ended up in a cell.

But he knew it wouldn't have been so easy, and he did not regret saving those kids at all. He just wished he'd managed to get in a few more punches before he'd been taken away. If he was going to be jailed and killed anyway, then why shouldn't he be jailed and killed for the right reasons?

He stared at his sketch of Bucky, grinning mischeviously next to skinny Steve, an arm carelessly flung over his shoulders. Back then he'd towered over Steve, but when Steve finally hit his growth spurt at fifteen and began to work out, they became almost the same height.

Part of the reason he wished he was small again was because of Bucky. Their families weren't wealthy or affluent, so both the boys took on jobs when they were young to try and earn some money. Bucky somehow got himself a spot on guard duty, a highly coveted job, at fourteen, and when Steve gained both height and muscle a year later, Bucky managed to get him in as well.

The very year Steve got in, when they were fifteen, Bucky was sent on a reconnaissance mission to the Russian space station, Mir, and things went horribly wrong. There was a battle and Bucky's arm had been lost. SHIELD may be strict but they thankfully weren't monsters, and Howard Stark had made a new arm for Bucky, almost better than his old one.

Bucky had never been the same after that, though, and he'd gladly accepted the news that he was kicked off the guard and he was going to jail. Both Steve and Mrs. Barnes had been so terribly worried about him, but they couldn't change the verdict at all.

Steve shook himself out of his desolate thoughts and went back to his drawing just as there was a loud bang on the door. He jumped and barely managed to get to his feet before the door flew open. Two armed guards shouldered their way into the room, gripped Steve's arms and began to drag him out.

'Wait, what's going on? What's happening?' he got out, completely taken by surprise. He received no answer. Instead he was forcefully shoved out the door and pushed down the hallway. Around him, he could see similar things happening to the other kids in the prison. Cells next to his and opposite were being opened up, their inhabitants thrown out.

He was roughly ushered forward. Any attempt to struggle was quickly met with a blow to his stomach and Steve furiously glared at them, repeating his question. He heard angry screaming and panicked shouts all around him.

Steve's eyes scanned the crowd and they alighted upon a familiar face - Mrs. Barnes. He began to frantically call out to her and she turned to his voice, running towards him. 'Mrs. Barnes, what's happening? Where are they taking us?' he demanded, trying to shake off his captors' firm grips.

'Stop,' Mrs. Barnes told the two guards firmly. They did, much to his surprise, and she took his face into her hands. 'Sweetie, I tried so hard, I really did - I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry this is happening. I should have argued harder, but they made the decision,' she told him gently, her hands shaking and her eyes filling with tears.

'Wait, are we going to be floated?' he asked her, panicking, and she shook her head, still holding back tears. 'No, thank God. You're going to Earth. They're running out of -' 'Mrs. Barnes, we are on a tight schedule here,' one of the guards interrupted. She ignored him and yelled after them as they dragged Steve away.

'They're sending you to Earth, Steve! They're running out of supplies, they can't hold so many people anymore! Find Bucky and stay together, I already told him! I love you!' 'I love you too!' he shouted back desperately, trying to keep sight of her, trying to understand what she'd just told him, but she faded into the crowd.

Steve hissed in pain as they roughly pulled him along behind them. He could see kids around him fighting with the guards, crying and shouting, and their parents equally as crushed, but all of their efforts were in vain. He wondered if they would fight so hard if they knew where they were going. 

He was going to Earth.

He was going home.

* * *

Tony Stark considered himself a very calm and collected person.

Up until the day he came out as gay to his father, got his ribs broken, his hopes crushed, his pride shattered, and then built a robot programmed to make Howard Stark's life a living hell.

No wonder he'd been thrown in jail. It had been a glorious scandal, and the news had a field day with that. His two best friends, Pepper and Rhodey, had tried their best to get him out, to work a plea deal, but there were no plea deals in SHIELD. Even for the brilliant son of SHIELD's best and foremost engineer.

So, Pepper and Rhodey, being the absolute best friends they were, got themselves in jail as well for sabotaging Howard Stark's latest project. When Tony heard the news he very nearly cried out of a combination of sheer shock, utter delight and anger at them for even trying to do that.

He'd gotten a chance to meet them once, because even though he was in jail, the son of Howard Stark got special privileges. He'd yelled at them and then broke down, and they'd comforted him and firmly stood by their decision, telling him that he was the reason they'd had such comfortable, happy lives until then and they would stand by him forever.

He wasn't ashamed to admit he'd openly sobbed.

Apart from those two days of overwhelming, embarrassing emotion, he was snarky and unruffled, hiding his feelings behind a mask of sarcasm and carelessness. None of his wit escaped him on the day they shoved him into the Quinjet taking them to Earth.

'Say, do all of you have the combined emotional capacity of a walnut, or is it just you two?' he asked the guards who were closing the door of the Quinjet. They didn't reply, wonder of wonders.

He looked around. He was strapped into his seat, the massive metal brace over his chest holding him in place firmly and uncomfortably. The Quinjet was nothing remarkable - just a escape ship attached to the Helicarrier, designed to withstand the force of entering Earth's atmosphere, with around a hundred seats or so just like his own, each holding a person.

He saw a gorgeous redhead, a blond boy with a cheeky grin and hair sticking up everywhere, a fifteen year old girl with long brown hair, a quiet-looking dark haired boy with glasses, and a heck ton of others who he'd never seen before, before he found Rhodey and Pepper. Pepper was just a few seats away but Rhodey was nearly on the other side of the craft.

He grinned at them and gave them a double thumbs-up, to which they rolled their eyes fondly.

A screen in front of the craft flashed and Commander Nick Fury appeared on screen, his mouth in a grim line and his eyepatch as festively black as usual. 'Good morning, all of you. I am Commander Nick Fury. You are gathered here as volunteers for a mission which hasn't been attempted in the history of the Helicarrier - you are going to Earth.'

Tony heard muted gasps and squeals of excitement. Everyone leaned forward as Fury began explaining what they were going to do on Earth and how they were going to survive, and how brave they were for being the first to step on Earth in a hundred years. He didn't explain why they were going, much to Tony's frustration.

He wriggled around, ignoring everything Fury was blabbing, trying to figure out how the seats worked. There was a few buttons on the side, for releasing the brace, tightening it, putting it back on and some others. He was reckless but not dumb, so he carefully avoided those buttons and instead turned his attention to the bracelet on his hand.

Fury was explaining the use for the bracelets. 'They monitor your heart rate, your blood pressure, toxin levels and give us information on how you're faring on Earth. In case you're in serious trouble we will be able to send help to you. And if you're perfectly fine, we will be able to come down and start living on Earth again.'

Excited chatter filled the Quinjet and Tony rolled his eyes, slouching in his seat. He let his gaze wander over the other kids in the spacecraft with him. They were all clearly juvenile prisoners, with the same hunched shoulders and haunted, faraway looks in their eyes. To his shock, some of the kids looked barely twelve, while others like him were seventeen. 

Tony narrowed his eyes at a small twelve year old boy with a soft face and messy brown hair, who stared back at him with defiant brown eyes until he looked away and directly at an absolutely stunning boy. With silky soft blond hair, baby blue eyes and the stature of a Greek god, he was definitely the most beautiful person Tony had ever seen in his entire life.

He stared longingly at the boy for a few more minutes and was then shaken out of his daydream by a loud bang, and the spacecraft slowly began to move. The younger children on the Quinjet cried out while the older ones whooped as Fury wished them good luck.

And then it went hurtling through space. 

Tony clutched his metal seatbelt, panicking, as everyone began to either scream or cheer in joy. For a few heart-stopping minutes they were free-falling through space, and then suddenly all was calm.

They were gently cruising through space.

Tony whooped and immediately hit the release button of his seat while Pepper glared at him furiously. He shot her a smirk as he drifted away from his seat, completely weightless, floating through the spacecraft. Two other kids saw him and immediately unbuckled their seatbelts as well.

He began to float around, looking for a window or anything which would show him the view outside. Sadly, the designers of the Quinjet hadn't thought windows were an essential, much to Tony's dismay.

'Hey, what are you doing?' an angry voice said, and Tony turned to see the blond Adonis from earlier glaring at him. His smirk grew wider. 'What does it look like I'm doing, handsome? Don't you want to see the view?' He winked, purposefully striking a pose mid-air, and the blond boy blushed furiously, looking around to see if anyone had noticed their little exchange.

No one had, much to Tony's disappointment, except for the boy sitting next to Steve, with ice-blue eyes, choppy brown hair that came till halfway down his neck and a gorgeous metal arm which Tony ached to get his hands on. He was pretty sure his father had made a metal arm once, and he wondered if it was the one the boy had.

He sent another wink to the blond and floated away, towards Rhodey, who looked pissed. 'What do you think you're doing, Tony? Get back in your seat,' he said, exasperated, but there was an undercurrent of fondness in his voice. Tony grinned at him. 'Didn't you miss me, platypus?' he asked innocently, and Rhodey rolled his eyes back, the corner of his mouth tugging upwards.

'I did, but I would prefer you in one piece when we land. Get back in your seat, Tones.' Tony sighed dramatically and began to float backward, keeping his gaze locked with Rhodey's, who broke into a reluctant smile. He flipped over and nearly crashed into the blond boy from earlier, who was stubbornly ignoring him.

Tony opened his mouth to say something witty to the boy when the spacecraft shook violently. Tony went flying and managed to break his fall by grabbing onto somebody's seat. One of the other kids who had been floating around wasn't so lucky. He hit the wall of the spacecraft with a horrifying crack.

Tony painstakingly made his way back to his seat as the spacecraft shook and rumbled terrifyingly and clawed himself back in, slamming the metal brace down just as it began to blare an alarm and red strobe lights filled the craft. He heard Pepper yelling his name and he yelled back that he was okay, trying to block out the screaming and the constant, head-pounding shriek of the alarm.

Fury came back on the screen, his face glitching, his voice nearly static. 'Keep calm - atmosphere - seatbelt on - space junk -' was all he said before the screen went black and the screaming intensified. 'Everybody shut up!' the blond boy shouted, but the younger kids were absolutely horrified and they _would not_ close their mouths.

Tony shut his eyes and gripped onto his armrests, his palms sweaty, but his mind was strangely empty. All he could think of was that he wanted this to be over soon so he wouldn't have to listen to the howling and so he wouldn't have to see the red light pulsing behind his eyelids.

The pressure increased as the spacecraft began to shudder and pick up speed. He heard another vicious crack and when he opened his eyes he found out that the other kid who'd been floating around had hit the wall as well. Out of the three kids who'd removed their seatbelts, he was the only one alive and unhurt.

Guilt slowly began to fill him just as the alarm stopped. The lights disappeared and the spacecraft was suddenly still.

The screaming stopped.

Everyone cautiously looked around.

'The lander activated,' Tony said into the silence. When they looked at him, he clarified, 'The lander is a brace of parachutes, it's designed to activate to help our landing. We're fine now, it's working.' He heard the sighs of relief go around the room.

'Then we should land any time soon,' the dark-haired boy with the glasses said softly, and Tony hummed in agreement. 'You'd better hold on,' he added, and watched everyone immediately clutch tighter onto their seats. He glanced quickly at the two limp bodies in the Quinjet and looked away, guilt gnawing at him.

For a few minutes, everything was quiet as the spacecraft gently floated down. 

'Any moment now...' Tony muttered, tense and on edge.

Silence... silence...

_BANG._

The spacecraft shuddered as it hit the ground with a loud noise and everyone screamed. Even though Tony was holding as tight as he could onto the armrest, his head knocked into the side of his seat and he groaned.

Immediately he heard people unbuckling their seats and getting up. He did that as well, his legs slightly wobbly, and pushed through the crowd to get to the two bodies on the floor. He crouched beside them, eyebrows creased, and checked their pulse. Both were undeniably dead.

Tony stood up and hit Pepper head-on. 'Sorry, sorry, Pep,' he said quickly, and she steadied him, scanning his face. 'Don't beat yourself up, Tony, they made a choice,' she said quietly, pulling him into a hug. 'Yeah,' he said, not convinced, and she sighed and grabbed his hand. 

'We're on Earth, Tones! Can you believe it?' she said excitedly, as Rhodey joined them. 'Oh, my god, is that _Jarvis?'_ he asked incredulously, and Tony looked where he was pointing. A boy with pale blond hair and glasses, an exact replica of Jarvis, Tony's old butler and the only true parent figure in his life, was standing at the back of the crowd.

'I remember him as a lot older,' Tony mused, and Pepper jabbed him in the ribs. 'That's his son, idiot. Vision.' 'He had a son?' Tony and Rhodey both said in unison, and she rolled her eyes. 'You can talk to him later. For now you'd better see where we are.'

The three of them trooped to the front of the spacecraft, pushing through the crowd. In front of the doors was the hot blond boy and his metal-armed companion, trying to open the doors. Tony rolled his eyes and shoved past them. 'Move aside, dinosaurs, it's not even hard to do,' he muttered, ignoring their glares.

He quickly punched in the code to the door, which he only knew because of his father, pressed a couple of other buttons and the doors slowly ground open.

Tony sucked in a breath, unsure if he was just about to get hit with a blast of radiation, but instead a cool breeze wafted across his face.

Stunned, he stepped out of the spacecraft and onto the ground. It was springy, and green, and blue, and oh, so beautiful.

Huge trees towered over him, their foliage dotted with pretty white flowers. Tall, delicate flowering bushes swayed in the wind, the sky was the color of cornflowers, and the breeze smelled earthy and fresh. The sun warmed his skin for the first time in his entire life and he dropped to his knees, running his hands over the ground, whooping. Behind him he heard the remaining ninety-eight kids stepping out of the spacecraft, making similar sounds of joy and surprise.

He was on Earth.

He was home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aight, first chapter out, it's like 5 am and I've gotten like 15 minutes of sleep, so bear with me if the plot structure is terrible and the setting is an absolute mess. my hoe ass really can't think straight right now.
> 
> this fic really goes well with ruelle's song 'game of survival', which is where the title of the fic is from. i really think ruelle is an underrated artist. they use her songs for tons of shows and movies but she doesn't really get recognized, so yeah, go check her out. also check out the 100 if you're ever looking for shows to watch. 
> 
> hope you enjoyed this chapter and the fic so far, stay in school, don't do drugs, drink your milk and get 8 hours of sleep kids~
> 
> lots of love,
> 
> ╰⊱♥⊱╮ღ꧁ $ÂĈRЄÐØßĿĪVĪØИ ꧂ღ╭⊱♥≺


	2. the other side

Natasha was sharpening her knife, ignoring everyone around her, when some unfortunate soul decided to see if she spoke words or spat fire.

'Hey.'

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the boy with the crooked grin and the messy blond hair who'd been sitting next to her on the Quinjet. He was leaning against the tree next to the pile of rocks she'd chosen as her perch.

She didn't deign to give him a reply.

'Haven't I seen you before?' he asked, undeterred by her utter dismissal of him. He wisely remained a good distance away, though. She still didn't give him a reply, but she paid a bit more attention to him now. While outwardly she looked like she was continuing her work, she was subtly glancing at him.

Now that he mentioned it, he _was_ familiar to her. 

Then again, she grew up learning to observe people. She was always aware of her surroundings. If she'd seen him once on a mission or whenever she'd come onto the SHIELD Helicarrier, then it would have stuck with her. And seeing him once in her life was nowhere near reasonable excuse for them to become best buddies.

She set down her knife and looked directly at him. 'What do you want?' 

He arched an eyebrow. 'Is it so bad to want to talk to a fellow delinquent?' She shrugged. 'Depends on the delinquent.' He grinned at her and held up his own knife. 'Mind if I join you?' She did mind, but before she could say anything he moved closer and sat on a rock just a foot away.

She tensed up but decided to ignore him. They spent a few minutes in silence, sharpening their knives, when he spoke up again. 'I'm Clint Barton, by the way.' 'Good for you,' she replied shortly, and he snorted. 'Are you always like this?' 'Like what?' 'You know,' he said quickly, realizing he'd just put himself into a very bad position, 'standoff-ish. Cold. Not very... outspoken. No offense though.'

'Some taken,' she told him, but she wasn't hurt. She'd already known that and thought a lot worse about herself. 'My name's Natasha,' she added, and his face lit up. 'Natasha...' he prompted, and she groaned. 'Natasha Romanoff,' she snapped, and he grinned wider. 'Now we're making progress. Not bad, Natasha.'

They continued sharpening their knives, but this time in companionable silence. 'I did mean it when I said I recognized you,' Clint told her, holding his knife up to check if it was sharp enough. 'Really?' she asked him, not giving off a single sign that she recognized him as well. 'Yeah, I do. You definitely aren't from around here, though. I'd've known you otherwise. I used to be Fury's watchdog. Before I got into jail.'

And just like that, it hit her.

Natasha was actually from the Russian space station, Mir. What most people didn't know was that although the Soviet Union was a thing of the past, the KGB still existed. Members of the KGB flew under the radar, and rarely made an appearance, but they were a tight-knit group and were strong in their beliefs.

Natasha, orphaned at four, was taken in by Ivan Petrovich and put into the Red Room training program, which groomed young girls and taught them the art of killing, seduction - they were trained assassins. Natasha had been the best out of all of them, which was why she was chosen for _that_ mission.

The mission to assassinate Chancellor Nicholas Joseph Fury.

She'd been so close. So very, very close. Natasha's plan had been near perfect. She'd managed to get onto the Helicarrier without detection at all, a stowaway on a craft that had gone to the Russian space station to trade supplies. Her escape route had been planned as well, another craft heading back to Mir, but this time for political reasons.

She'd aimed the sniper rifle at him when he was giving a speech to the residents of the Helicarrier, in order to create the chaos that was instrumental to avoiding detection. She'd taken her shot - and it had hit the mark - but she hadn't escaped the eye of Fury's guard dog. 

Clint Barton.

He'd raised the alarm and she fled, as everyone was shouting and panicking, all their focus on their wounded Chancellor. Clint and a few other members of the guard chased her down. She knew for a fact that Clint hadn't seen anything of her except for her eyes and the glint of her sniper rifle, since he wasn't the one who caught her and threw her in jail, but she knew she had to be careful around him.

The only reason she was alive and not floated was because Fury had survived the assassination attempt due to Clint knocking him sideways, but the bullet had hit him and he was gravely injured. Even that could have lead to a death penalty, for she wasn't from the Helicarrier, but Fury had been compassionate. The way he'd studied her made her think he knew about the Red Room. 

He'd put her in the prison cell where she'd spent nearly a year and a half.

And he must've known about the whole 'send them to Earth' thing, because a mission like that couldn't be planned in just a few weeks. It took months of decision-making, voting and careful plotting. Which meant she owed him her life, much to her chagrin. Her instructors had told her better dishonor than death or else all their hard work would go to waste, but she would rather die than owe somebody something.

She knew she had to be very, very careful around Clint Barton.

'Yeah, well, I did come onboard the Helicarrier once,' she said casually, 'before I got thrown into jail, I mean. You would've seen me around then.' He nodded slowly but didn't look convinced, so she steered the conversation away from those dangerous waters.

'I don't think we're going to survive more than a few nights,' she remarked, hoping her statement was morbid enough to distract him. It was. 'Why would you say that?' he asked curiously, 'We seem to be doing pretty well. At least they didn't send us down without supplies. We've got three boxes of knives and preserved food and tarp and other stuff. We could make it.'

'But didn't Fury say something about a mountain?' Natasha said, furrowing her eyebrows, realizing that her throwaway sentence was actually a huge problem. 'He said there was a mountain with a hidden bunker inside, stocked with supplies from the war, but the people never got around to using it. He said we were going to land on it. Mount Weather, right?'

Clint looked around as if just realizing where they were. 'Well, this isn't it. I think we landed in the wrong place. The Quinjet must've been defective.'

They both looked at the smoking spacecraft, damaged from both the short free-fall in space and the rocky landing.

Several kids were arguing beside it. Two boys, one blond and the other dark-haired, were snarling at a group of three others, headed by a boy with a square jaw and a brutal-looking face. Natasha slid off her perch, tucking the knife into its sheath at her waistband, and headed towards the craft, closely followed by Clint.

A crowd was already beginning to gather around the two groups. Natasha pushed to the front and caught the tail end of what the blond boy was saying. '- weren't supposed to be here! You heard Fury, he said we were going to land on their secret bunker at Mount Weather, or whatever, and if you're not the least bit concerned of what the fuck we're going to do then I don't know what to say to you,' he spat heatedly.

So Natasha wasn't the only one who'd figured that out.

'Don't listen to him, Rumlow, he's just a whiny baby,' one of the other boys sneered. The leader of their little group - Rumlow, or whatever his name was - turned to the blond. 'Don't tell us what to do, Rogers. We aren't listening to you. We spent our whole lives held in place by those fuckers up there and as soon as we're free for the first time in years you decided to lord it over us.'

The dark-haired boy next to Rogers with the metal arm furiously stepped forward but Rogers held him back. 'I'm not trying to lord it over you. I'm trying to tell you if we don't do something about our situation we're all going to be dead in a matter of days,' he snapped, clearly trying to keep his cool but failing.

Rumlow stepped forward threateningly and so did the dark-haired boy but somebody from the crowd spoke up and they both turned their heads.

'Everybody calm down.' A huge muscled blond pushed his way through the crowd and stood in front of the aggressors. 'Rogers is right,' he said, in his slow, rather old-fashioned accent, 'we have descended upon the wrong peak. Commander Fury wished us to land beside the underground refuge used by those of the past. He called it Mount Weather. We must find it.'

Rogers thanked the muscled boy while his dark-haired companion gave Rumlow and his gang a triumphant smirk.

'Thanks a lot, Thor, I thought we would all die from an overdose of testosterone,' somebody else said, and Tony Stark slipped from the crowd, adjusting a pair of sunglasses he'd picked up from goodness knows where. He patted Thor's bicep, unable to reach his shoulder, and grinned at Rogers.

'Come on, losers, we're going on an adventure.'

* * *

Clint didn't know why he'd volunteered for the scouting party.

Then again, he didn't know why he did a lot of the things he did.

He looked around at their motley group. After the whole thing with Rumlow, Stark suggested that a couple of people should head out from the makeshift camp and look for where they were supposed to be. The blond, who'd introduced himself as Steve Rogers, was first to volunteer, and Bucky Barnes was close to follow.

Then was Thor Odinson, who Clint found himself warming up to, with his cheerful demeanor and old-fashioned way of speaking. Strangely, Stark decided to tag along as well. A quiet boy with glasses who'd introduced himself as Bruce Banner wanted to come as well, saying that he just needed to get away from everyone at camp, which Clint could understand.

He was the next to sign up, and he'd given Natasha his best puppy-dog eyes until she caved and reluctantly said she was coming as well. Clint was very proud of his puppy-dog eyes.

Two fifteen-year-old kids - the Maximoff twins - also wanted to come along, but Steve's mother hen instincts came out of nowhere and he firmly told them they were too young and they should stay in camp. Nearly everyone knew about the Maximoff twins. Aboard the Helicarrier, couples could only have one child, to regulate the population of the space station.

If you had more than one kid you were floated and anyone who helped you conceal the other kid would either be put in jail or floated as well. Wanda and Pietro's mother had twins, nothing she could control, but she hid it from everyone and only presented Pietro to the world. His younger sister Wanda was hidden - no one knew she existed until she snuck out of her family's cabin and was caught by the guards.

Everyone knew what happened after that.

Clint sighed and decided to stop thinking about the twins before his high spirits crashed and burned. Instead he focused on the scenery around them. Everyone looked utterly awed. The trees were absolutely massive and the flora and fauna was like nothing in their history textbooks. He bent down to pluck a beautiful five-petaled blue flower and turned it around in his hands, blown away by the fact that something so delicate and so perfectly designed had simply sprung from a seed.

'It's all so gorgeous, isn't it?' Natasha said quietly beside him, her hand extended with the palm up, gently holding a pretty white butterfly. Its wings slowly fluttered for a moment and then it took off. She watched it fly away, her green eyes indecipherable.

'Does anyone even know where we're going?' Stark said loudly from behind them, looking at them over his sunglasses. Steve rolled his eyes. 'Yes, Stark. We're going to climb the mountain nearest to camp, which is this way, so we might be able to see Mount Weather.'

'Good, I don't have to do anything then,' he replied, satisfied, and Steve sighed.

Thor was looking up, into the foliage, his eyes narrowed. 'Hey, buddy, what're you looking at?' Clint called. He shrugged. 'I have glanced upon what my forefathers called a squirrel.' Everyone scrambled over to the tree. If what Thor was saying was true, then the squirrel was the first sign of animal life they'd seen so far.

Clint craned his neck. He had excellent eyesight, a feature of his that had once saved Fury's life, but his hearing was rather poor. His brother had joked that when God made Clint, he accidentally made his eyes overpowered and decided to reduce his hearing to compensate.

Sure enough, he caught sight of the quick brown animal, darting through the leaves. 'It's there,' he whispered, and everyone looked where he was pointing. 'Woah, I've never seen one before,' Steve commented, and Bucky grinned at him. 'None of us have, Stevie, that's the whole point,' he snorted, and Clint and Tony snickered.

Natasha wasn't smiling, though. Her posture was rigid and she was standing a bit away from them. 'There's something wrong with it,' she said, her mouth in a thin line. Everyone moved to her side and tried to find the squirrel again. 

She was right. The squirrel's face was oddly proportioned, but it was looking away rather than looking right at them. Clint picked up a rock, aimed, and hit a branch underneath the one the squirrel was perched on. It immediately turned to look at the source of the noise and everyone gasped.

It had two faces.

It turned away and scampered higher into the foliage.

No one said anything. Even Tony, who usually had a snarky comment on the tip of his tongue, was quiet.

'Well...' Clint said awkwardly, into the silence, 'should we just... continue, then?' He gestured at the general direction they were heading in. Everybody nodded and Steve took the lead, carefully maneuvering up the gentle slope of the hill. No one had anything to say after that and they all quietly admired their surroundings. Bruce looked especially affected by the squirrel.

If Clint's eyes weren't so good, he might've written it off as them playing tricks on him, but they were what they were, and he swore he saw Bruce turning a bit... green.

He blinked and shook his head, and then Bruce was back to his normal self. He adjusted his glasses self-consciously when he saw Clint looking at him and Clint turned away, instead choosing to focus on Natasha, who was right beside him. 'If the squirrel was... you know, like that... because of the nuclear radiation, then - then what's going to happen to us?' he whispered to her.

She shrugged. 'We may be dying this very moment,' she replied darkly, and when she saw Clint's face she added, 'when we get back to camp we'll see if there's a radio or something on the Quinjet, and we'll try to reach the Helicarrier and ask them what's happening.' Her plan was solid and Clint nodded.

'How much farther?' he called out to Steve and Bucky, who were way ahead. Bucky turned. 'Not much, it's a small hill,' he yelled back, and Clint nodded. Bucky's eyes lingered on Natasha for a moment longer and then he turned to face the front again. Clint smirked - he was definitely going to ask Bucky about that later on. 

He stuck his hands in his pockets as they walked. Clint really wasn't one to be quiet like this, but jail had changed him more than he'd thought. 

Clint's family had been a terribly fucked-up one. His father was a drunkard, which wasn't legal on the Helicarrier - the reason he was floated - and usually beat Clint and Barney after a day of overdoing it on the booze. Clint had tried to run away from the cabin and live with the nice old lady on the opposite side of the Helicarrier several times, but he was always dragged back.

Barney had gotten his father's rage and his addiction to drinking, so by the time Clint was thirteen he had two tormentors in his life.

He got a job as a children's entertainer and juggled balls and did stunts at birthdays or made cute balloons to sell at celebrations until he was fourteen, when his skill at an archery range on Unity Day - the day the twelve space stations joined together and formed an alliance, which clearly didn't work out well - attracted Fury's attention and he offered Clint a spot on guard duty.

Clint quickly earned himself a high rank because of his precision shooting and his excellence at the bow and the arrow, and eventually Fury became a father figure in his life. He was assigned to the special group of people always around Fury, good enough to be his bodyguards, and life was finally taking a good turn for him when everything came crashing down.

Barney had showed up out of nowhere, a year after his father was floated, when Clint was sixteen, and had demanded Clint give him half of his weekly pay. Clint obviously refused and Barney was furious. The two of them argued which then escalated into a full fight which had to be broken up by the security, and Clint had missed an important event which he was supposed to be attending by Fury's side.

Barney was floated, as he was an adult by then, and Clint was put into that tiny jail cell.

And clearly almost a year in the jail cell had changed him more than he'd like to admit. He no longer joked around flippantly, no longer smiled at every opportunity he could, had frown lines on his face, almost constantly had bags under his eyes and generally looked like the delinquent they thought he was.

He was shaken out of his morose thoughts when he ran into Thor's broad back.

'Careful, my friend,' Thor rumbled, steadying him and then clapping him on the shoulder, which then resulted in Thor having to steady him again.

'We reached?' he asked, ignoring Tony's snickering and Natasha's amused gaze. Steve nodded and Clint turned to look at the view.

_Holy fuck._

'Holy fuck,' Bucky muttered, echoing Clint's thoughts.

The hill wasn't big but it was still tall enough to be able to tower over the trees on the ground. In the distance was a massive mountain, its peak touching the sky, and even from so far away Clint could see signs of man's work - steel structures, supporting beams and even a flag. It was beautiful in a rugged, harsh way, and was definitely Mount Weather, seeing as it was the only mountain they could see for miles.

The only problem was that between them and Mount Weather was a massive jungle.

He took a deep breath and exhaled heavily, placing his hands on his hips.

'Well, hello from the other side.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> woah, people saw this already. didn't expect that. well, here's another chapter :)
> 
> don't get used to this, i have highly inconsistent posting schedules, lmao. since it's quarantine i probably will be able to post a chapter almost daily, maybe every two days, since i really have nothing else to do, but i wouldn't trust myself and my constant companion, writer's block.
> 
> i tried to give clint and nat a bit of backstory that's also relevant to their actual backstories but i couldn't flesh it out properly so i may start writing like a prequel to this fic and include everyone's tragic tales. also i know this fic is tagged as alternate universe - no powers, but they all are going to have a semblance of their powers. like nat - she's an assassin in training, clint - really good eyesight, tony - billionaire genius, but i have no idea what to do for those who have crazy powers, like hulk and thor, let's see.
> 
> anyways, much love, see you all next time <3
> 
> ╰⊱♥⊱╮ღ꧁ $ÂĈRЄÐØßĿĪVĪØИ ꧂ღ╭⊱♥≺


	3. live like legends

Thor found himself doubting his life choices every moment he spent around the other juvenile delinquents.

He longingly thought of his home, Asgard, the little space station unregistered with the other twelve but instead floating around on its own, surviving by itself yet somehow managing to look far more beautiful than the steel-grey and blinding-white of the other space stations he'd seen.

All of Thor's poor decision-making, however, couldn't make him regret moving to the Helicarrier, even if it was plain, boring and designed to meet the bare minimum of its inhabitants' needs. It made up for its utter blandness by the people it held. Thor found them fascinating. He loved people. All sorts of people - from different cultures, different races, different backgrounds - they were all so absolutely gorgeous in their own way.

Everyone had a little beauty in them. You just had to look for it, and once you did, you really couldn't tear your eyes away. Human beings were so strong, resilient, stunning - they may be a bit damaged, but they overcame all their challenges and rose to the top, and Thor really couldn't get enough of that. He just couldn't wrap his mind around it.

He was awestruck every single time he learned about someone new, and every single time he learned something new about someone he already knew, and it made his day to just listen to people talk, watch the little things they did, like tuck their hair behind their ear or adjust their glasses. He loved watching them think, plan and create. Hell, he loved accomplishing something himself and then getting that realization after - like, wow, I just did that, that's awesome.

However, all of his love for human beings and what they could do did not give him an inkling of why he loved that anarchic, irresponsible, foolhardy, unreasonable dingbat who called himself - or didn't like to call himself - Thor's younger brother.

'Loki, what do you think you're doing?' he demanded, crouching beside the fourteen-year-old black-haired boy who was striking a match against a pile of kindling. 'I'm lighting a fire, you oaf,' he snapped back, and Thor arched an eyebrow. 'Oh, no, I'm blind, I couldn't see that - _of course_ I know you're lighting a fire! I'm asking you why you would feel the need to light a fire when there's a massive bonfire in the middle of the camp!'

Loki coolly looked at the tall flames leaping higher and higher a short distance away and then went right back to making his own. 'It's too crowded, and besides, they're cooking that deer you found earlier with your buddies. I'm sick of that smell.' Thor sighed and sat down next to his adopted brother. 'It's not that bad, you know. The smell,' he said, just to be saying something. Loki didn't even acknowledge him.

The scouting party did find a deer, and once they decided it was normal-looking - or at least, didn't have two faces, three eyes and eight legs - Barton and the red-haired girl had both thrown their knives and taken it down with impressive accuracy. They'd then lugged it back to camp and everyone had cheered once they realized they didn't have to eat stale bread and tough jerkin for dinner.

Thor and Loki had been inseparable when they were younger - or at least, he thought so - but as they grew into teens, Loki slowly began to understand that their father, Odin, Chancellor of Asgard, didn't care about him at all. Their mother Freya had been one of the reasons Loki remained, but once she passed away prematurely due to a virus, Loki fled from Asgard and took refuge in the Helicarrier.

Thor couldn't stay behind after that. All of Odin's persuasion to not leave him alone without a male heir did nothing to change his mind. His older sister Hela was there, and although she was just as callous and cold as their father, she was a good leader. Thor did feel a bit guilty about leaving the inhabitants of Asgard to her mercy but he couldn't desert his little brother.

Loki had somehow persuaded the residents of the Helicarrier to take him in, but he didn't stay in their good books for long. He was caught hoarding and smuggling supplies which were vital for other people and he was thrown into jail. Thor hadn't been as lucky as Loki at convincing the guards he would be a good citizen and he'd been put in the cell beside his brother's.

'Loki...' he began, unsure of what to say, and Loki looked up at him. 'Just - stay safe, okay? I - I love you.' Something flickered in Loki's eyes and he glanced away. 'Yeah, I will.' As Thor began to walk away from him, he could've sworn he heard a soft 'I love you too' but when he turned around, Loki was concentrating on building his fire.

He wasn't looking where he was going, still musing over Loki, when he bumped into someone. A short, definitely female someone.

'Sorry, sorry!' he yelped, reaching out and steadying her. He'd had to do a lot of steadying today, he realized. Maybe it was a quality of his - bump into people and then steady them because you're way taller and bulkier and therefore have as much of a chance as falling over as a tree.

'It's fine,' the other person said in a breathless voice, straightening her shirt. She was way smaller than him, with long brown hair and pretty doe-like eyes, and when she smiled at him he felt his heart jump a little. 'I'm Thor Odinson,' he said, offering his hand. She shook it. 'I'm Jane. Jane Foster.'

He nodded and grinned at her. 'I've been running into a lot of people today.' 'Oh, same!' she replied, laughing, 'I simply haven't been concentrating on my surroundings at all. Aren't you the son of Commander Odin? From Asgard?' 'I am, yeah,' he said, shuffling his feet, suddenly feeling awkward. 

Her face lit up in a smile.

'Oh, my God, that's wonderful! I've been dying to meet you! I love meeting people from the other space stations. It's such a surreal experience! Especially from Asgard. I was studying to become a foreign diplomat, you know, as well as taking advanced astrophysics. It's a pleasure,' she said, all in a rush, and he smiled at her.

This was why he loved humans so much.

'I love meeting people from other space stations, too. I haven't the vaguest idea of astrophysics, but I was training to become the next Chancellor, back in Asgard,' he said genially, and Jane opened her mouth to say something when another girl barreled into her.

'Oh, my god, Jane, you will not believe this, I just met this incredibly hot blond guy, I think his name is Clint or something - woah,' she broke off her rant to stop and stare and Thor, and then she nudged Jane with her shoulder and winked. Jane's cheeks flushed.

'Thor, this is, uh, Darcy, she's my best friend,' she said, her face turning pink, and Darcy grinned. 'Hey, handsome,' she said easily, 'which planet did you come from?' 'Asgard, I'm from Asgard,' Thor told her, and she grinned wider. 'Wish someone would've told me that when I was still up there, you bet I would've hauled my ass there before you could say "home of the hotties".'

She turned back to Jane. 'Catch you later, then, I've got so much to tell you about this Clint dude. Oh, and about Tony and Steve. Did you see the way they were looking at each other? Adorable. I'm pretty sure Barnes has a crush on that redhead, but that's a tale for later, isn't it? See you, handsome!' she called out to Thor, and then flounced away.

'Uh, yeah, that was Darcy for you,' Jane got out, her cheeks still pink, and before Thor could say anything else she told him, 'See you later, then!' and hurried after Darcy. Thor shrugged and continued on his way. Females did mystifying things sometimes, and Thor didn't fret or get himself worked up for not understanding them. He liked to remain blissfully ignorant. It was soothing.

He walked over to the bonfire, cast a last glance at Loki, who'd gotten his fire going and was poking something into it, and sat down on the ground a few feet away. He heard a thud next to him. 'Hey, man, how's it going?' Barton asked cheerfully, stretching, and offered him a skewered piece of deer meat.

'As well as it can go when one is out in the wilderness, I suppose,' Thor replied, gladly accepting the food. 'Yeah, it's not that bad. Sure, there's weird insects, and strange noises, and we might all die from a lack of food in a few days, but it's great otherwise,' Clint told him, grinning. 'We set up tents, as well. With that plastic stuff. Tarp. We found a lot in the Quinjet. And some other things. We used the seat padding for pillows. Gonna be a great night.'

Thor nodded, his mouth full. 'You need to choose a tent partner, man. Two people or more in a tent. That's the rule. Even then a lot of kids are gonna have to camp out in the Quinjet,' Clint went on, not the least put off by the fact that he had been the only one talking for the past few minutes.

'I suppose I'll stay with my brother,' Thor finally said, swallowing the meat. Clint's eyebrows rose. 'You mean that kid?' He jerked his chin in Loki's direction. As if sensing he was being talked about, Loki looked up, saw Clint and Thor, narrowed his eyes and went back to doing whatever weird thing he had been doing.

'Yeah, why?' 

'He was hanging out with Rumlow's gang earlier. They were getting on Steve's nerves, lighting torches and then waving them around, nearly catching the trees on fire. You can thank Bruce that we're not burnt to a damn crisp,' Clint said irritably. Thor sighed and put his head in his hands. 'I'll talk to him. I doubt it will make any difference, though.'

'Hey, don't beat yourself up, man. Sometimes we can't help who we're related to, or who we love. We just gotta deal with it but we shouldn't give ourselves a hard time, either. Because once in a while, holding on hurts more than letting go,' Clint said easily, and Thor turned to look at him. 'Sometimes you say deep, meaningful things like that and the other times you trip over your own feet. Choose a side, Barton,' he said firmly, and Clint laughed.

They relaxed by the fire for a bit, just watching the others in the camp. He'd gone around previously, introduced himself, learnt everyone's names. Peter Quill, his girlfriend Gamora, Drax and Mantis were hanging out near the trees, with... a raccoon? Peter Parker was in the corner, tossing bits of deer into Wade Wilson's mouth. Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes were talking to a kid named Sam Wilson who'd seemed really enthusiastic about birds - far too enthusiastic for Thor to continue having a normal conversation with him.

Thor remembered Darcy's words about the kids in his scouting party and he passed on this valuable information to Clint, whose eyebrows shot up and began to actually giggle. Thor then spent the next ten minutes listening to Barton waxing poetic about how handsome he was, and then the next fifteen minutes on how young love lasted forever.

He was spared from listening to Clint's next long-winded anecdote on whether Darcy would say yes or no if he asked her to date him by none other than Rumlow himself. Thor sat up straight, watching the other boy prise open the band around his wrist and then smash it against a rock. His buddies did the same and they threw their wristbands into the fire Loki had lit.

He looked around to see if anyone else had noticed. Sure enough, Rogers' blue eyes were focused on the three delinquents. Thor looked back - and nearly had a brain aneurysm. 

Loki was tossing his band into the fire.

* * *

Bruce liked to stay under the radar. He liked to stay back, not get involved, live his life peacefully with no drama. 

Basically the opposite of hanging out with people like Tony Stark.

He didn't even mean to talk to Tony. He was in the Quinjet, claiming a corner of the ruined drop ship for himself because he didn't really like the outdoors, when Stark swaggered in, his ridiculous sunglasses still perched on his nose, and had immediately zeroed in on Bruce.

'Hey, you're Bruce Banner, aren't you?' he asked, stopping right next to Bruce's little corner. Bruce adjusted his glasses nervously. 'Yes, I am.' Tony's face split into a wide grin and he sat down next to Bruce. 'You're the one who studied gamma radiation, aren't you? They gave you a PhD for that.'

'Yeah, well, it's not that great. I just dabbled in radiophysics, wasn't that much of an achievement. I'm more suited to nuclear physics,' he said timidly, tapping his fingers on his knees. His accident while researching gamma radiation was the worst thing that had happened to him, and although it was one of his greatest strong points, he hated talking about that period of his life.

Tony shrugged. 'Either way, you're pretty awesome. I've always wanted to meet you. Your work is incredible.' 'Thank you, thank you so much,' Bruce told him, smiling despite himself. He'd always thought Tony Stark was an arrogant, holier-than-thou sort of person, judging by the way he acted on camera, but his impression of Tony so far was the opposite of that.

As if he'd read Bruce's thoughts, Tony smiled, leaned back on the palms of his hands and said, 'Don't believe everything the media tells you. You'd think that when everyone's trying their best to survive because their home planet was destroyed, the news would lay off the celebrity gossip a bit, but no - they somehow find the time and energy to soak up the lies of Hollywood.'

Bruce nodded, arranging his meager possessions beside his makeshift bed. 'When you're done with that, do you think you could help me find and fix that radio Romanoff was talking about?' Tony asked, after a few moments of silence. 'Sure, why not?' Bruce replied, and he could've sworn Tony sighed in relief.

'Let's go, then,' he said, and they both got up. 'You take the downstairs. There's a hatch, I'm going to go up there and see what the hell that is.' Bruce nodded in agreement and got to work, beginning with the far end of the drop ship as Tony pulled down the ladder to the hatch and climbed up.

Kids walked in and out, ignoring him as he poked and prodded around. The bottom floor of the drop ship was just the ripped-up seats and the fried television screen. He couldn't find anything else of much importance. He had decided that he'd better go and see if Tony had any more luck when a familiar brown-haired girl walked in.

She took one look at him and gasped. 'Bruce! I didn't expect to see you here!' 'Hey, Betty,' Bruce said guiltily, as Betty Ross ran over to him and pulled him into a hug, much to his shock. Betty had been his partner when he had been experimenting with gamma radiation. She was incredibly clever and also made Bruce very nervous. He'd had a crush on her for ages, but he was too afraid to ask her out.

He'd almost racked up the courage, but then he'd had that accident while testing the effects of gamma radiation - which Betty had been helping him with - and he really didn't know what happened, but later on they'd told him he'd injected way too much gamma radiation for the dosage of the myostatic primer.

He'd apparently turned into a massive green monster, almost eight feet tall, and had wrecked the lab, injuring and knocking out Betty in the process. It had almost been a disaster for the Helicarrier but the guards with the stun guns had managed to overpower the green guy and he'd turned back into himself. The last thing he remembered seeing was Betty's scared face and then everything was blurry as the monster took control.

When he came back to consciousness he was in a jail cell.

They told him Betty was fine, but he hadn't seen her after that. They'd given him an injection to keep the monster at bay and lower his heart rate, apparently designed by Betty herself, so there were no accidents after that, but he knew for sure the Helicarrier was very pleased to get rid of him. Not many people knew about the gamma radiation accident - they all believed Bruce Banner had been put into jail for wastage of supplies - and he knew they'd like to keep it that way.

'I just wanted to say - I'm really sorry,' Bruce told her sadly. 'I didn't mean to do any of that and I especially didn't mean for you to get hurt. I'm really, really sorry and if you didn't want to be my friend anymore I'd understand -' 'Bruce,' Betty said firmly, 'stop beating yourself up. I'm fine, see? None of that was your fault. I wasn't even injured badly at all, just a few scrapes. If anything I'm the one who should be sorry for even asking you to go through that experiment without testing the primer first.'

'No, no, I overdosed. I'm sorry for everything, Betty -' 'Stop saying you're sorry. You shouldn't be, no one could've remotely expected that to happen. We're all fine. Friends?' she asked, and offered her hand. Bruce shook it, smiling. 'Thanks, this really means a lot, Betts.' 'Think nothing of it. I could never hate you. What're you doing here, anyway?'

Bruce had just begun to explain the whole idea of radioing the Helicarrier when Tony called out to him. 'Hey, Brucie-bear! Come up here, will you?' Bruce looked at Betty and she nodded. They both made their way up the ladder and through the hatch onto the second floor of the drop ship.

This was clearly the control room, meant for manual operating, but it wasn't needed. Tony, who had his back to them and was working on a dashboard full of buttons and screens, explained that the Quinjet had originally been designed for travel between the space stations but they'd changed it to make it suitable for a drop ship, which was why there was an unused control room. If anything went wrong one could work the ship from here but none of the delinquents could operate a drop ship, so it was practically useless.

He turned around and saw Betty. 'Oh, hey! I'm Tony Stark, by the way. You are?' 'Betty Ross, and I already know you,' she said, accepting his handshake. He grinned, gave her double finger-guns and went back to fiddling with the dashboard. 'I've found a radio, but it's fried. Not salvageable _at all._ Even if it were it would be impossible for long-range communication, especially to someone in outer space. Something went wrong with the radio signal - either when we entered Earth's atmosphere or when we landed.'

'So... it's a lost cause.' 'Yep, pretty much. We're screwed, aren't we? However, I can make it work short-range - like walkie-talkies. I could make several, actually - this radio system may be destroyed, but it's a work of art. I'll just need some materials. Do you think we could take apart this drop ship to make walkie-talkies?'

'I don't think the people sleeping inside will take too kindly to that. Like me,' Bruce said dryly, and Tony shot him a grin. 'Yeah, yeah, whatever. It's not gonna be that hard to camp outside. Man up, live like legends. I just need a _little_ bit of - what's that?'

Tony looked up from his work in the direction of whatever he'd heard. Bruce heard it too - yelling. Lots and lots of yelling. Then there was a thud, and someone screamed. 'What the hell is going on out there?' Betty demanded, and he shrugged. 'Wanna find out?' Tony asked her, already halfway down the ladder.

Bruce was about to follow him when Betty caught his arm. 'Hey. Are you going to be alright out there?' she asked softly, and Bruce shrugged. 'I really don't know. Wonder of wonders, they didn't send that antidote - the one that reduces my heart rate so I don't freak out.' 'Just be careful and stay out of it, okay?' Betty told him gently, and he nodded. 'Yeah, will do. Thanks, Betts.'

They both climbed down the ladder and closed the hatch behind them. Tony had already left the drop ship. They hurried outside to find Thor wrestling with his younger brother, Steve, Bucky and Clint squaring off with Rumlow and his buddies, and the bird-obsessed kid Sam and Tony's best friend James Rhodes trying to break up the fight.

'Holy shit, that's an absolute mess,' he muttered, taking deep breaths. Betty grabbed his hand. 'You stay here, don't get involved. I'll find out what's happening and I'll get back to you.' He nodded and hung out near the trees, nervously fiddling with the hem of his shirt. 'It's strange, isn't it?' a serene voice said, and he jumped. Standing beside him was the Maximoff girl, her long hair neatly tied back, coolly watching Rumlow punch Steve in the stomach.

'What's strange?' he asked her. 'The fact that even when there's a crisis and the need to survive, and everyone would make it out fine if they stuck together, people still start fights and cause arguments and manage to widen the rift even further and that is why we ended up there, I'm pretty sure,' she told him calmly. Her twin brother Pietro was a few feet away, gaze flicking between his sister and the brawling delinquents.

'That is very true,' Bruce agreed. 'Do you have any idea why they're fighting?' Wanda nodded. 'Rumlow and his gang wanted to remove their wristbands, to convince the Helicarrier they were dead and therefore the planet was unsafe to live on. He was holding some girl's arm over the fire to give the impression that she was suffering and then he cut off her wristband so they would believe she died of natural causes. I don't think it would do much, seeing as we have been living here for a day now and we're fine, but who knows? And he managed to get Thor's little brother Loki to follow him, which is why Thor's pinning him to the ground now.'

She jerked her chin towards where the massive blond was holding Rumlow in place, shouting something indecipherable from their distance. 'I don't get it. Why would anyone be so idiotic?' Bruce frowned. 'Yeah, none of us get it, either. Sometimes I feel like the human race got what was coming to it,' Pietro said unexpectedly.

They watched the fight commence in silence after that. Thor successfully held down his little brother and knocked out one of Rumlow's goons, too. Steve, Bucky and Clint dealt considerable damage to Rumlow and the other kid - Jasper Sitwell, Bruce remembered - but they weren't unscathed. Clint's lip was bleeding, Bucky was wiping away blood and Steve was clutching his stomach where Rumlow had hit him.

Betty came over after everyone cooled down, her eyes troubled. 'Rumlow's got a strong argument going. He's managed to convince some other kids to throw away their wristbands as well. He says that if they come down, they're not going to forgive us. Habits die hard and they're gonna reinforce their rigid control over us - which obviously didn't go down well, not when we've just had our first taste of freedom,' she said in a rush, twiddling her fingers.

'I understand why some people would think that,' Wanda remarked, and Bruce nodded. 'Some of these kids have been through a lot because of the government. They'd definitely not want to help the very ones who made their life hell. But if they remove their wristbands - they're condemning the rest of the human race to a life in space - they're never gonna see any of this,' he said in a low voice.

They watched the aftermath of the fight - kids tending to their wounds, forming groups and either discussing the skirmish or taking sides and vehemently quarreling, going off to quiet corners to just sit and think. It was a ruin, their camp. A free-for-all, survival of the quickest situation. The girl who'd had her wristband forcibly taken off by Rumlow was crying and Sam and Scott Lang were trying to comfort her.

Betty exhaled sharply. 'I think Stark got it right. We're definitely going to live like legends.' 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ackkkk i adore writing thor. i feel like thor's one of the characters least written about in the marvel fanfic world, which is such a shame, because although he doesn't have a backstory that's a tragic work of art like bucky and nat, or a personality that shines through and hits you in the feels like steve and tony, he's a cinnamon roll who's been consistently optimistic even when he doesn't need to and is seriously not talked about enough. poor dude's been through so much and still manages to smile and make my entire day.
> 
> sorry i just really like thor and i don't know why :)
> 
> and bruce! oh my god, sweet soft bruce. SO MUCH WHOLESOMENESS TO WRITE IT'S SO PURE \\(◕ᴗ◕)/
> 
> yeah i liked writing this chapter. it lifted my mood. also, i've realized i wrote this fanfic based on the speculation that most of you who were reading knew about the 100. sorry about that. if there's something anyone doesn't understand, like a bit of terminology or the way something's described, feel free to ask me. here's a bit of fanfic for y'all to munch on while i write the next, see you later, and lots of love <3
> 
> ╰⊱♥⊱╮ღ꧁ $ÂĈRЄÐØßĿĪVĪØИ ꧂ღ╭⊱♥≺


	4. nature strikes back

'You know, maybe that prison cell wasn't so bad after all,' Bucky muttered, lying facedown in their makeshift tent.

Steve groaned in reply, gingerly patting his stomach where Rumlow had punched him. 'Yeah, we didn't think so back then, did we?' he told his best friend, crawling to the tent flap and peeking through. The sun was just rising - a phenomenon Steve would've found fascinating in a different situation - and the sky was flooded in beautiful orange, pink and red.

Clint Barton wandered over, sporting a black eye and a split lip but grinning nonetheless. He held up a fistful of... arrows? 'Hey, Rogers, check this out. Rise and shine, Barnes. Me and Tasha went out earlier to that lake we found and guess what was lying there? Flint. So I made arrows.' He displayed his possessions proudly. They were crudely whittled and the heads were attached to the shafts with some sticky kind of sap, and a few feathers were tied to the end of each, but they were remarkably uniform.

'Of course you did, that's the logical thing to do,' Bucky said, yawning, emerging from the tent behind Steve, 'because we totally have bows, y'know, and we're so stocked we couldn't have used the flint for something useful, like knives.'

Clint rolled his eyes. 'Shut up, Barnes. As if you do anything useful. I think I might make a recurve bow later on, if I get time. Anyways, move your asses, we're going back out there because clearly us going out there once wasn't enough for the rest of those cowardly dickwads. They want us to see if we can make the journey through the jungle or whatever.'

'Nooo,' Bucky groaned, stumbling out of the tent and slumping onto a very aggravated Clint. 'Get off me, you boneless abomination,' he hissed, pushing Bucky off him and onto Steve. 

'Why are we playing volleyball with Barnes and why wasn't I invited?' a very familiar voice questioned. Tony Stark strutted over and grinned at him, slinging an arm over Clint's shoulders and ignoring the other boy's vehement protests that he was in fact, not a pillow for everyone to rest on and use as they please.

'We aren't, and in no way do we advocate replacing objects used for playing sports with humans, thank you very much,' Steve told him as Bucky straightened up, and Tony smirked. 'Hey, there's Tasha. I forgot to tell her we're going out again. Be right back!' Clint shouted at them over his shoulder, shoving Tony off him and jogging towards the redhead.

There was a short moment of silence when Bucky yawned again, stretched and punched Steve lightly in the shoulder. 'I'm gonna look for food. You coming with?' Steve shook his head and Bucky shrugged. 'Your loss.' He sauntered away and towards the drop ship. 

Steve and Tony were left facing each other. 'Are you really not hungry or did you just miss me?' Tony asked, his smirk growing wider. Steve flushed. 'I had a lot yesterday -' 'Yeah, right. Pretty sure all you got yesterday was a knuckle sandwich, which thankfully didn't mess up your pretty face,' Tony scoffed.

Steve ignored the compliment and instead focused on the very prominent blush on his cheeks, willing it to fade away. 'Did you come here for a reason, or...?' he asked Tony, heading towards Clint and Natasha, both of whom were the unofficial weapon dealers in the camp. Tony pouted, jogging slightly to keep up with Steve's long strides.

'Is not wanting to see you a good enough reason?' he asked innocently, and Steve reddened. 

'Are you like this with everyone or am I just lucky?'

That startled a laugh out of Tony. 'You? Lucky? Nah, I don't think so. I'm the lucky one here, I've got an excellent view of some _fine_ eye-candy.' 

Ah. Welcome back, Steve's old and forever-by-his-side companion, the so _fucking_ annoying blush.

'I mean - why would you want to see me?' he stuttered. 

_Wonderful, Steve. You're just nailing it with the one-liners._

'I don't know, probably because you're gorgeous. And adorable. Just saying.'

'Um -' Steve almost squeaked, '- thanks? You're - you're gorgeous too,' he admitted, his face a shade of red so dark he could be mistaken for a fucking beetroot.

Tony grinned. 'There, that wasn't so hard, was it? I _am_ gorgeous. Everyone just takes some time to own up to that.'

'Personality, though... that could use some work,' Steve teased, suddenly getting a boost of confidence from goodness knows where, and Tony rolled his eyes.

'Great, the one time you're sassy it's to me,' he muttered, but his voice was fond.

'Hey, will you two lovebirds stop eye-fucking each other? There's kids around, ya know! Get a room, or tent, or something!' Barton yelled, making Steve's face burn in embarrassment and causing Tony to shout back, 'You're just jealous no one would eye-fuck you, Barton!' which earned a fair amount of snickering from all those in earshot.

Before Clint could reply, Natasha smacked him and he was cut off with a 'shit, Tasha, not _that_ hard!'. She handed Steve a crudely-fashioned spear made with a long, relatively sturdy branch and sharpened metal from the drop ship, and threw him a wink and a quick gesture to Tony's direction, to which he sighed, accepting the fact that he was going to forever have pink cheeks.

Thankfully Tony had laid off the flirting, and although he occasionally made eyes at Steve, he was focused on talking to Bruce, Rhodey and Pepper, and Steve's face slowly returned to its normal color. Bucky emerged from the drop ship in a much better mood and handed Steve some of the dried beef jerkin they'd sent down with the delinquents, much to Steve's relief, because he was, in fact, hungry.

Thor made his way over, his blue eyes both troubled and sad, rubbing at the place on his jaw where he'd been hit by his little brother. Bruce went to him, looking worried, and Steve was about to go as well when Tony announced that they were leaving and everyone else were dicks for not volunteering.

Steve took the lead again, going in the same direction they'd chosen before, towards the hill. Everyone was much more comfortable with each other and he heard quiet conversations going on in the background as the delinquents got to know each other more. Bucky jogged to catch up with him and they both walked together in amicable silence.

'This place really is beautiful, y'know. What do you think would've happened if there never had been a nuclear war?' Bucky asked him, looking up at the trees around them. 'Life would've been so much better, Buck. Could you imagine it? Being free. Being able to run away, put miles of distance between yourself and other people and still have miles to discover,' Steve replied thoughtfully.

'Yeah. And now we have a chance to start over, don't we? Kind of like it's nature telling us we messed up, but we could have a go at it again and do things right this time,' Bucky mused.

'And yet somehow we still mess it up,' Steve said bitterly, thinking of Rumlow.

'People don't change, do they?' Bucky agreed ruefully. 'What do you think happened to those kids who removed their wristbands? Did they manage to convince anyone else, or...?'

'I hope not. They don't understand the importance of wearing it, do they? Like, how selfish can people be? Sure, they're guaranteeing themselves a lifetime of freedom - and, that is, if they do manage to live a lifetime by themselves on Earth with limited supplies - but they also aren't thinking of those up on the Helicarrier,' Steve said worriedly.

'Yeah. If they get rid of their wristbands, then they're confirming the fact that thousands of people won't get to experience the life they missed out on. They're condemning innocent children to years aboard that giant steel trap,' Tony interjected, having caught on to the last bit of their conversation.

Steve sensed everyone falling silent, their collective attention turning to him.

'That's not the only reason we got to stop Rumlow,' he reminded them, but they all looked confused. 'What do you mean - there's more?' Bruce asked.

'Yeah, there is. The Helicarrier's running out of supplies and oxygen. Part of the reason they sent us down is because they needed less people aboard the station but that's just a temporary solution and they're going to have to start looking at more ways soon. If I'm not wrong, they're going to have to get rid of more people somehow if we don't give them the message it's safe down here,' he told them, puzzled.

Everyone except for Bucky looked shocked.

'How did I not know about this?' Tony demanded, all of his snark gone in the face of this horror. 'My father must've known, he was right there in the inner circle - and he never told me! We were slowly dying out and he never told me!'

'Never mind that now - we have to tell everyone! If we get back there and Rumlow's somehow converted the whole camp to his twisted idea of freedom -' Clint began, but Natasha interrupted him.

'All of you need to calm down. It's a horrible thought, sure, but if we go back there and scream that everyone's loved ones are dying it will just cause panic and confusion. First we're going to need a radio, or something to message the Helicarrier with, because I don't think they're going to come down after their system interprets - what, ten casualties? More?'

'She's right,' Bruce agreed. 'If we somehow make it to that bunker Fury was talking about there's got to be some sort of system to communicate with the Helicarrier, which was why Fury had chosen that specific bunker to land beside. Also, communicating directly with the Helicarrier is a more suitable way to convince them to come down than to crudely hint at survival with our steady ranks or whatever.'

'So... continue as planned, then? No dramatic reveal and no mass panic?' Tony asked. Everyone nodded. 'Shame, that,' he said under his breath, and Clint snorted. 'Wow, our humour's dark, isn't it?' he remarked, and Tony shrugged. 

'That's just the way it is, Barton. Somehow dark humour is actually funnier. If I go to Hell, at least I'll go laughing.'

'I'd drink to that, brother,' Thor spoke up, and everyone made noises of assent.

And on that note, they trudged on towards certain doom.

* * *

Tony must've been more distracted than he thought.

He'd been worrying over the mess that was his life - his father lying to him and then beating him up for being gay, his mother either ignoring him for most of his life or trying to reconcile with him after she came to the realization that he was, in fact, her son, Jarvis passing away, Steve - heck, he thought a lot about Steve, way too much than even he'd admit.

There was something so oddly naive yet so admirable in the way Steve carried himself, the way he stood up for himself and the way he viewed the world - and Tony found himself - god forbid - actually... kind of falling in love with Steve.

And it was this thought that was the last thing he could remember before he tripped over something on the ground, hit the ground hard and blacked out.

'Tony, are you okay?'

No, he was not. If his prostate body on the ground was any indication.

'Tony, say something, please -'

Ah, yes. Speaking. Now if only he could remember how to do that...

_'Tony!'_

'Shit, don't be so loud,' he muttered into the dirt.

Okay, he'd mastered speaking. Next - moving. Getting away from all this fucking grass. _Think, Tony. You know this._

'Alright, he's alive,' the voice announced.

'Clint, people don't die from tripping over a - whatever that thing is.'

'They might, you never know. What if they trip onto a chainsaw? Or into a pool of lava, or some shit like that? It's game over then, boys -'

'I am not having this conversation with you right now. Stark, get up before I kick you.'

That was Romanoff. Romanoff's kick would definitely hurt like a bitch. _The fate of your ribs depend on you, Tony, get the fuck up._

He groaned and propped himself up on his elbows. A concerned-looking Steve was crouched next to him. Fucking Steve with his fucking blue eyes. He was the reason Tony was on the ground anyway. Behind Steve was Barton, who was smirking like he'd just won the lottery of catching other people in embarrassing positions.

Fucking Barton, too. 

'I'm fine,' he mumbled, rolling over and sitting up. Steve sighed in relief, which made Tony's traitorous heart jump, and he stood up, holding out a hand for him. Tony took it, reveling in the firmness of his grip, and he held on for a moment longer before dropping it and stepping aside.

'That's why you fell,' Romanoff informed him, pointing towards a metal handle sticking out of the dirt. Tony frowned. 'Well, then, it's a shitty... whatever it is.' Barnes, Thor and Bruce were all scrabbling at the dirt around the metal handle, and the others joined them.

_Time to get dirty, Stark._

_Oh, that sentence in different context - okay, stop. Stop and just be useful._

He dropped to his knees and started to push aside the dirt. 

Their efforts revealed a hatch, covered in grass and other material that had accumulated over a century. Steve and Barnes both pulled at it together and they managed to open it up. A ladder led into darkness, as far as Tony could see.

Great, he loved darkness.

'Who's going first, then?' he asked into the silence. Steve, obviously, began to climb down. As if he hadn't been any more noble and self-sacrificing already. 'If you die I got dibs on that spear, Rogers!' Barton yelled after him, to which Steve replied with a classic 'fuck off', much to Tony's delight,

He loved being a bad influence on people.

'Can you see anything down there?' Barnes yelled. 'Nope, I'm not an owl and I don't have superhero-level eyesight, Buck. Don't you have matches, or something?' 'Oh, yeah, I do. One sec, I'm coming down.' Barnes climbed in after Steve. 'Hey, if you die as well, I claim dibs on that backpack,' Barton told him.

Not one, not two, but three people told Clint to fuck off at the same time.

Tony had great friends.

As Clint pouted, Tony peered into the still-darkness. 'You're supposed to light the matches, Barnes. Not just wave them around like magic wands,' he stated. 'I know that, smartass. Give me a moment,' Bucky replied. Sure enough, a second later a match flared up.

The two of them moved further into the darkness, which was exactly how you died in every single movie he'd ever watched, and the light of the match disappeared from his view. 'I'm beginning to think Barton may be right. If you die, scream, will you? It'll be real helpful for us, we won't have to come down there and check on you,' he told them.

Immediately he received a scream from Barnes.

For a moment he actually thought they were dead but then Steve started snickering, and so did everyone else, so he rolled his eyes and sat back. 'Fuck you, Barnes. Hope the ghoulies get you.' 'Ooh, I'm terrified,' Bucky said mockingly. 

Then suddenly the entrance to the underground whatever-it-was lit up.

'You have mastered the art of conjuring light!' Thor exclaimed excitedly. 'Either that, or they've set it on fire,' Bruce told him, and Thor deflated. 'Don't be so morbid. We found the light switch,' Steve explained. 'Ugh, that's boring,' Clint complained. 'For once I find myself agreeing with one of your ridiculous notions, Barton,' Thor commented, and Romanoff smirked.

'Come in, then, idiots,' Barnes called.

They all climbed down the ladder and into the not-darkness.

The not-darkness turned out to be a small underground shelter. It was quite homely, much to Tony's delight, with couches, a bed, a kitchen and a bathroom. There were signs of human habitation - plates in the shelves, broken toys on the floor, boxes full of supplies - but everything was covered with a thin layer of dust.

People hadn't set foot in this place for almost a century.

Tony crouched beside the broken toys. A child had lived here. What had happened, to cause them to leave their almost-perfect bunker in the woods? Did they run out of food? Or did they just think that living in space would be better than waiting for the world to repair itself?

He sighed and stood up. There were no pictures, no diaries, nothing personal in the bunker except for those toys. Whoever had lived here was long forgotten.

He went over to Steve, who was looking through the supplies. 'Hey, this is pretty sweet. More knives, clothes, a lighter, is that a tent? Awesome. Water bottles - yeah, that's going to be pretty helpful - alright, this is actually really good for us - hey, Tony,' he said, finally realizing Tony was standing next to him.

Tony was about to say something snarky in reply when he heard Thor yelling something.

'Friends! You must come up here and look at this! I may have found another bunker much like the one you are standing in!'

Tony arched an eyebrow at Steve. 'Aight, who's going to check that out?' 'You two stay here and keep looking,' Romanoff told him. 'The rest of us will go to Thor. Also, pass some of the stuff you found. Some of us could go back to camp, distribute it and tell them about the whole Helicarrier-is-dying thing.'

'Seems pretty solid. Clean up after you're done, lovebirds,' Clint called to them as he climbed out of the bunker. Bucky snickered as he collected some of the stuff from the boxes of supplies and Tony winked. 'You bet we will, don't want you jerking off over here later on,' he said, smirking.

'Fuck you, Stark,' Clint shouted, but Romanoff pushed him aside and closed the hatch firmly. 

'So. Any idea what the fuck we're going to do in here?' Tony asked Steve, who shrugged. 'I guess I'll keep going through this, see if I can find anything useful. Maybe you could check the other rooms? Like, we could use the plates and the glasses, and the extra sheets on the bed.'

Tony sighed and sat down next to him. 'I mean, what are we going to do about us, Steve?' he clarified. Steve froze.

'Us?' he asked hesitantly.

'Yeah. I mean, by the amount of flirting we've been doing, I think it's safe to say I'm interested in you, and you're interested in me, right?' he asked.

Steve was quiet for a few moments, and then he said, 'I suppose you're right.'

'I really, really like you, Steve,' Tony told him sincerely, and he actually meant it, for once in his life.

Steve turned to him, opened his mouth, hesitated for a second - and then kissed him.

_Steve Rogers kissed him._

Wait, that wasn't fair, wasn't Tony the one to usually start the kissing? He should have - never the fuck mind, this was incredible. He was kissing Steve and it was incredible. Tony curled his hand around the back of Steve's neck and pulled him closer, eliciting a groan from Steve. He was pretty sure their make-out session would've turned into something else when somebody started screaming.

They broke apart, both of them looking stunned, as the screaming grew louder.

'What the -' Steve muttered, getting up and running towards the hatch. He climbed up the ladder and pushed it open, Tony right behind him - and then he yelled. 'Tony, get back down there, now!' 

Tony scrambled back down the ladder as Steve pulled the hatch on and closed it tightly, sweating, his eyes panicked.

'What's happening?' Tony asked, confused. 'Storm. A huge fucking storm. Like, miles and miles of just orange. It's not dust, it's not sand, I have no idea what it is, but it's dangerous and it hurts. I think it's an acid storm,' Steve got out, rubbing furiously at his arms and neck, where red welts had already appeared.

'Wait, what about the others?' 'Hopefully in the other bunker. Hopefully.'

Tony groaned and collapsed on one of the couches. 

'Guess we're now facing nature's revenge, or some shit like that,' he mumbled. Steve snorted. 'Nature's Revenge sounds like a movie - like, Nature Strikes Back.' 'Yeah, and the sequel - the Return of the Human Race. We aren't gonna be in the sequel, though,' he mused, and earned a choked laugh from Steve, reminding Tony of what they'd been doing before the scream. It was way too awkward to continue now.

Nature not only wanted revenge on them - it was a cockblocker, too.

Fucking nature.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i fucking loved writing this chapter. i kind of went onto a tangent and then didn't stop so there's a fuckton of sassy comments - thanks, brain - and somehow i managed to give it enough of a plot that it isn't just sarcastic comments and flirting. hopefully.
> 
> anyways - yasssss stony kissed, fucking finally, i know it's the fourth chapter but i just needed them to kiss so no slow burn this time, sorry not sorry :) and there's more kissing in the next chapter, woo!
> 
> im so happy \\(´ω`)/ im going to go jump off a cliff, see ya on the flippity flip~
> 
> lots of love,
> 
> ╰⊱♥⊱╮ღ꧁ $ÂĈRЄÐØßĿĪVĪØИ ꧂ღ╭⊱♥≺


	5. mercy killer

Natasha usually liked to keep out of dangerous or potentially volatile situations. She ran in the shadows and had done so for her whole life - she liked to assess things from afar where she wouldn't get into the worst of it and then later on, when she had a definitive plan, she would attack.

Keeping that aside, she also didn't particularly like getting out of harm's way and right into the unavoidable path of another human being.

Bucky Barnes was definitely another human being.

Clint had the brilliant idea of putting her and Barnes in charge of exploring the other bunker, by themselves, while he, Thor and Bruce headed back to camp with the supplies from the first one.

Sometimes she really hated Clint.

For the most part, she ignored Barnes. He was handsome and he knew it, but she knew that she wasn't lacking in the looks department either, so that gave her a boost of confidence. They'd both been eyeing each other up - Barnes, especially, he clearly didn't know the meaning of being subtle - but she didn't expect that they'd both be holed up in a bunker together.

Yeah, fuck Clint. Dude was a dickhead.

At the beginning, they'd explored the bunker in silence. It really wasn't anything remarkable - an almost exact copy of the first one, except a bit smaller and without as many supplies. This had no sign of a child living there. It didn't have the homely feel, either - the couches were gone, and the bed was nothing but a pile of sleeping bags.

But the best part of the bunker was discovered when Barnes was rummaging around in the box beside the sleeping bags. She was in the main room, checking if the flashlight she'd found had any batteries in it, when he gave a loud whoop of excitement. 'Hey, Romanoff, come check this out!'

She pocketed the flashlight and went into the bedroom, confused. 'What did you find?'

He was standing in the middle of the room, holding a gun, a huge smile on his face.

'Wait, is that really -' 

'A gun? Yeah, baby. It's a 9mm Glock-17. Apparently these were really popular back then.' 

'Still are,' Natasha told him, as he passed it to her. 

'Did you find any magazines?' she asked, weighing the gun in her hand. It was a good one. She loved using the Glock series because they were handguns, more her style than massive sniper rifles.

'Yep. Do you have any idea if they're the right ones?' He crouched, sifted through the box and then handed her several magazines. 'Double stack, seventeen rounds. Nice. Not the best, but I suppose whoever stayed here was a civilian, they wouldn't have access to the high-capacity thirty-round ones,' she mused.

It hit her that she was giving out way too much information about a gun than what was considered normal and she shut her mouth, but Barnes clearly was a quick thinker.

'How d'you know so much? I was on the guard and even I couldn't immediately say what kind of magazine that was,' he asked her, eyes narrowing. She shrugged. 'Don't ask questions for answers you're not going to get,' she told him, hoping to be vague enough that he would lay off the interrogation.

'Yeah, right,' he said, much to her disappointment. 'I don't know, Romanoff, but there's a lot you're hiding.' 

'Oh, and having secrets is a crime now?' she snapped at him, reaching for the gun holster. 

'I didn't - never mind,' he said, raising his hands in surrender. 'Just - be smart about what you hide and what you give away, because all that's going to come and bite you in the ass later.'

'Wow, thanks for the advice, I never would've known,' she told him coldly.

He shrugged. 'Yeah. I'm a professional fortune-teller.' He grinned at her and she turned away so he wouldn't see the light coloring of her cheeks.

Damn him and his stupid fucking smile.

'Are there any more? One gun isn't going to be very helpful in a camp of ninety-eight delinquents,' she remarked, and he was about to reply when he was cut off by a scream.

They froze.

'That's Barton,' he told her, but she was already sprinting to the ladder. She knew. 

She unscrewed the hatch and pushed it open. 'Clint!' she yelled. 'Clint, are you - _fuck!'_

Heading right towards her was an enormous fucking storm. It was orange-ish, and looked nothing like dust or sand. She turned her head and saw Steve, his blue eyes panicked and his hair tousled. 'What the fuck is that?' she called out to him, and he shrugged - just as it hit them.

It stung. _It fucking stung._

She gazed down at her arms in horror as red welts began to appear.

Acid.

_It was a fucking acid storm._

'Get down!' she yelled at Barnes, who was standing at the bottom of the ladder. She ducked into the bunker, pulled the hatch on and closed it tight, breathing heavily and trying to ignore her itchy, burning arms and neck.

'What's going on?' he asked her, puzzled.

'Acid storm,' she replied shortly, rubbing at her arms. 'Acid, and it stings like a bitch.'

'Is Steve -?'

'Yeah, he's fine. He's in that other bunker with Stark and they'll be okay as long as they don't do some stupid shit like open the hatch. Clint, however...'

Natasha sighed. As much as she hated to admit it, Clint had gotten closer to her. He was the only one who'd made an attempt to get to know her and she wouldn't say it out loud, but the guy was kind of like the brother she'd never had. And if anything happened to him out there...

'Hey,' Barnes said gently, noticing her face. Fuck, he was good at reading emotions. She quickly tried to compose her features back to the stone-cold mask they usually were, but the damage was already done.

'Clint's going to make it. He's a stubborn idiot. If he met death face-to-face he would smack it and then proceed run away because he's a survivor, just like the rest of us, you know.'

'I'm not worried about him.'

'Yeah, right. You don't have to hide everything, Natasha. Sometimes it's better to just let it all out.'

'No, it's not. Don't even start. You don't know who I am, where I'm from, what I've done - you don't know anything about me, so don't start making assumptions or whatever -'

'I might not know anything but I do know you're holding back a ton of emotions and that's going to fuck you up later on.'

'Already did,' she mumbled.

'Yeah, well, there you go. I'm not saying trust everyone and start telling people your life story as soon as you meet them - I'm just saying that there are people who actually care about you, and it's not bad to care about them as well.'

'The place I grew up in, it was.'

'I'm sorry,' he said softly, realizing that the tone of her voice was of somebody who'd lost a person close to them.

'Don't be. It accomplishes nothing. Anyways, why do you care so much, Barnes?'

'Why'd you call me Barnes?' he asked, amused. 'You know I have a name, right?'

'Yeah. Bucky. Bucky is a ridiculous name for anybody, really, and I refuse to call you that.'

He laughed. 'Steve chose it when we were younger, and it kinda stuck.'

'That's fucking great for younger Steve, but it does nothing for you now. I'm either calling you Barnes or nothing.'

'You could call me James,' he offered, so quietly she nearly missed it.

'James?'

'Yeah, that's my real name. You didn't think I was born Bucky Barnes, did you?'

'Well, then, James -' she pronounced it slowly, testing out the way it felt on her tongue, '- you can call me Natalia. That's my real name. How's that for being more open, or whatever the shit you're talking about?'

He grinned. 'Not very good, but progress is progress.'

Natasha smiled and turned her attention to the gun before she remembered that she'd asked a question.

'Hey, stop distracting me!'

'What?'

'Stop acting innocent. You know exactly what I'm talking about. I asked you a question. Why do you care so much? It's not like you have other things to worry about, like Steve, and the loaded gun I'm carrying, and, you know, survival.'

He paused. 'Well - I'm not sure, really. I guess I'm just a nice guy, you know?'

'Haha. I don't think you're going to answer that properly, are you?'

'Closing yourself off from the rest of the world isn't going to help you at all, Natalia, and trust me, I should know. How exactly do you think I lost my arm? In a fucking battle. And I know everyone's different and you probably have been through a lot worse, but just try, okay? There's a lot of things better in the world than solitary confinement.'

'What could possibly be better than solitary confinement?' she scoffed.

'How about I just show you?' James questioned, his mouth curling into a grin.

Before she could ask him what the flying fuck he meant, he had her face in his hands and was kissing her.

Okay, that was better.

Much fucking better.

* * *

Clint hurt.

Everywhere.

He hurt everywhere and he couldn't do anything about it.

He hurt everywhere and he couldn't do anything about it.

First he'd suffered through the embarrassment of everyone hearing him scream like a little girl, and now he had to deal with these stupid fucking welts all over his skin. Some of them were beginning to fade away, much to his relief, but they still hurt like hell, and he cursed whoever invented acid storms to forever walk on Legos.

Wow, Clint, your plan is great. Run off in the wilderness with Thor and Bruce while the rest of your friends chill in bunkers safe from the outside world just as a storm that causes welts on your skin and possibly kills you appears! Absolutely flawless!

Thankfully he'd already walked half the distance to camp when they spotted the storm. They'd started running but it was faster and the front line caught up to Clint maybe six hundred meters from the camp, and he'd screamed so loudly he was pretty sure the others in the bunkers could hear it.

He'd then ran the fastest he'd ever run in his entire life, passing even Thor and collapsing in camp a few meters in front of the storm. He'd alerted everyone to get into the drop ship before they all died and somehow they made it into the ship without mishap. However, three delinquents had gone out to the woods and they hadn't made it back yet, which gnawed away at Clint.

It wasn't crammed in the drop ship and everyone mostly stayed away from each other. Rumlow's group manned the first floor, which was fine by Clint since he liked high places anyway, so he clambered up onto the second floor with Thor, Bruce, a nice dude named T'Challa and some other kids who he could tolerate more than the others.

He sat in a corner by himself, furiously rubbing at his arms. Occasionally he thought of Natasha, who he'd purposefully left with Barnes, and wondered if she was stuck in the storm or had the common sense to stay inside. He also thought about Fury - whether the old man missed him, if he was okay, and if he was monitoring Clint closely.

If Clint knew Fury, he would be none of those things.

He sighed and closed his eyes, sitting there in silence until somebody tapped him on the shoulder. 'Hey, you hungry?' a female voice asked. He opened an eye. 'Maybe.'

A girl with wavy brown hair and a crooked grin was standing there, holding out an open tin. 'They're giving the cans you brought back from the bunker you found, and I don't think I can finish this on my own, so you wanna share?' she questioned.

Clint recognized her as Darcy, the girl Thor said had a crush on him. Well, if a pretty girl who liked him was offering to share food with him - he didn't see why he should decline.

'Sure,' he told her, and her eyes lit up. He scooted a bit so she would have space and she sat down next to him, holding out the can. He peeked into it and saw squares of meat. 'Are you sure we can eat this without getting - y'know - poisoned? It's been there in the bunker for a century. I thought it would be rice, or something - not meat,' he said doubtfully.

She laughed. 'Yeah, you can eat it. It's pemmican. I read about it in my history textbooks. Apparently this can last for an incredibly long time without spoiling. They used it in the war back then.' 'Hmm,' Clint said, still suspicious. 'If I die, it's your fault,' he warned her, and she grinned, handing him a fork.

He took a careful bite.

It was actually pretty good.

'This isn't bad, at all,' he said, surprised, and she nodded. 'I know, right? It's actually really nice. You're not dying, are you?' 'Let's hope not. I'm Clint, by the way.' 'I'm Darcy,' she said, smiling, poking her own fork into the tin.

They ate in silence after that. It was ridiculously quiet in the top floor of the drop ship. Everyone was either whispering or contemplating life. Clint didn't like it. He enjoyed chaos, reveled in people screaming and laughing and basically making noise. Silence always made him feel tense and on edge.

'It's terrible, isn't it?' Darcy said softly, sticking her fork into her mouth, 'all those people up on the Helicarrier, and we can't even tell them it's safe to come down.' He nodded. 'And they would, except dicks like Rumlow decide to remove the only thing connecting us to them,' he reminded her, and she groaned and rolled her eyes.

'Yeah, sometimes people suck. Can you imagine being that selfish?' She shook her head, her eyes troubled. 'I hope they found something in that bunker, or we'll have to figure out a way to go to Mount Weather without dying in that jungle.' 

Darcy sneaked a quick glance at him, the edge of her mouth curling up. 'Who exactly did you leave behind?' He smirked back. 'Steve and Tony, in one bunker, and Bucky and Natasha in the other,' he told her, holding back a giggle. Her eyes widened. 'You little shit. You clever little shit. You're evil, you know that, right?'

'Darling, I'm the definition of evil,' he teased back, and she rolled her eyes, but her cheeks were pink. 

They spent most of the evening in companionable silence, occasionally chatting with their friends or discussing the storm. Bruce brought with him the solemn news that three of the delinquents were nowhere to be seen on the drop ship and that they'd probably been stuck in the acid fog.

The mood dampened considerably after that announcement, and everyone chose corners to sleep in without further gossip. 

Hours later, Clint was woken up by Darcy prodding him in the side. Blearily he opened his eyes. 'What the fuck is happening?' 'The storm's over now. I think,' she said. He sat up, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. Most of the other delinquents on the top floor of the drop ship were awake.

There was a pause while everyone stared at each other, willing them to go first.

Finally T'Challa stood up and climbed down the ladder. Clint cheered him and Darcy smacked his arm. 'Ow, you're almost as bad as Natasha. Why does everyone slap me?' 

'Because it's easy to get away with.'

'Hey, what's that supposed to mean?'

'Is anyone in this room going to bat an eyelash if I tell them you walked naked into that storm outside waving a torch and singing Adele?'

'...no.'

'There you go. You're a certified dumbass. Hitting you is part of the job description.'

'Still. Doesn't mean y'all try to take my arm off, or some shit.'

Their bickering was interrupted by T'Challa coming back up, grinning. 'It looks normal outside,' he announced, and Clint whooped again, this time prepared for Darcy's backhand and ducking before it could touch his face. 

Everyone scrambled to their feet and went over to the open hatch, climbing down to the first floor, which was already almost empty. Clint poked Darcy. 'Race you to the end of camp,' he challenged, and then immediately took off.

'Hey, what the fuck? That's cheating!' she cried, following close on his heels. 'Do I look like I care?' he yelled back at her. 

'You're supposed to!' 

'Yeah, well, I don't - fuck!'

'What do you mean you don't fuck - why did you stop?' Darcy asked, confused, slowing down to a jog beside him.

She caught sight of what he was looking at and screamed.

A twitching delinquent lay on the ground, covered in burns, her eyes clouded over. She was trying to speak but nothing came from her mouth except for a gargling, indecipherable string of noises. Her hands clawed uselessly at the dirt and her legs were kicking slightly. She was dying.

He heard footsteps behind him, probably drawn by Darcy's scream, and then he heard gasps and shrieks as the others saw the girl as well. Jane pushed through to Darcy's side and the two girls clung to each other. 'Can - is there any way we can save her?' Clint managed to get out, crouching beside the dying delinquent.

Bruce shook his head. 'I've never treated acid burns like this before. I don't think there's anything we can do now.'

'Where - where are the others?' Clint asked her.

Her clouded eyes rolled to his direction. 'We... split up. I don't -' she took a shaking breath and went back to her babbling. Finally, she choked out, 'Kill... me.'

'What? I - I can't do that -'

'Kill me. Please,' she rasped, this time more firmly.

Shaking, Clint slid a knife from his boot and held it over the girl's throat. He couldn't - he couldn't do it. How could he kill someone? How would he be able to live with it? He knew it would be putting her out of her suffering, but -

'Please,' she whispered again.

He felt a steady hand on his shoulder, pushing him aside, and he obeyed, moving back as the new person knelt beside the dying girl.

Natasha.

She looked at him with sorrowful green eyes, holding her hand palm-up, and he silently gave her his knife. 

She held it over the girl's carotid artery and, quietly humming something - a lullaby, a melody, he didn't know - she slid it into her throat.

As the girl's spasms slowly faded and her eyes closed shut, Natasha kept humming, a beautiful song Clint had never heard before, and only when the girl went completely limp did Natasha remove the knife and stand up.

'Do you know what they call this sort of knife?' she asked him quietly.

He shook his head.

'Misericorde. It's called a misericorde. In English, that translates to mercy-killer.'

There was a silence amongst the delinquents as she wiped the girl's blood off the mercy-killer.

'You'd better come with me. We found another dead body, and it's not the acid.' 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whoever gave me the ability to write dialogue - take it away. take it away right now because i'm shit at it and don't deserve to have it.
> 
> here ya go, another chapter. i think you've understood the pattern by now, lmao - steve&tony, nat&clint, thor&bruce, and i'm going to continue with this hopefully bc i'm an idiot and won't focus on one relationship at once :)
> 
> anyways, hope y'all enjoy, make sure you're getting enough hugs a day - 4 for survival, 8 for maintenance and 12 for growth, did you know that? i'm clearly dead, then - and see you next time! lots of love,
> 
> ╰⊱♥⊱╮ღ꧁ $ÂĈRЄÐØßĿĪVĪØИ ꧂ღ╭⊱♥≺


	6. the reckoning has begun

Thor heard the girl sobbing from the other side of the camp.

It was so silent. Everyone was sitting by themselves, looking forlorn and trying to block out the Maximoff kid - Wanda - as she cried over her dead brother's body. 

The Romanoff girl was talking to her quietly in Russian, trying to soothe her. Thor admired the redhead's nerves. He knew that no one in the camp would have done what she did to the delinquent who died from the acid burns. It took courage and an ability to remain emotionally stable, both of which most of them lacked.

He sighed and rested his head against the tree he'd chosen to lean on. He didn't know where Loki was, but that wasn't uncommon. All of the people he'd grown close to over the past three days - Clint, Steve, Bruce - were either out of camp or, like in Steve's case, sitting with their childhood buddies, and Thor didn't want to intrude.

He'd ran back to camp as fast as he could, literally stepping on the back of Clint's shoes, trying to outrace the acid fog. Thankfully he didn't get any severe injuries and the red welts faded away after a few hours.

Then he'd come out and seen the damage done by the acid and he'd thanked whatever spirit had given him the strength to run as fast as he did when he was in the jungle, because that very easily could've been him. They'd discovered the bodies of the other two delinquents who'd been trapped outside the drop ship during the storm as well.

There were four casualties that day, and it was just around twelve in the afternoon.

Romanoff and Barnes had been making their way back to camp when they stumbled across Pietro Maximoff's body, stabbed to death with a knife. He had no signs of acid burns and the cause for his demise was just the weapon they found, and everyone realized the implications.

There was a murderer in the camp.

Thor scanned the other delinquents. They were all fucked-up. He knew that, they knew that - it was indisputable. But who was fucked-up enough to kill somebody... with no exterior motive? Most of the kids in the camp were there for theft, or petty brawls. He didn't think any of them were in jail for murder, but then again, he was no one to decide.

Romanoff was now sitting beside the stricken Wanda, talking to the girl in their native language and trying to comfort her to no avail. She had found a gun, and so had Barnes, which made them the most deadly people in camp, and she used that to her advantage, glaring threateningly at anyone who dared look at her.

She finally got up and Vision took her place. Thor watched her wearily as she made her way to him. 'Hey. Can you help dig a grave for Pietro? Wanda wanted her brother to have a proper burial,' she told him, stopping in front of the tree he was sitting against.

Thor stood up. 'Of course. Did you happen to find a shovel in the bunkers or...?' 

'No, no shovel, but we did find large pieces of metal, no idea what they used it for,' she said, frowning slightly.

'That's perfectly alright,' Thor told her, and then, in a lower voice, 'is she okay?'

'I mean, she'll live. I just hope she'll cope with it in a healthy way. Right now she's still grieving but I bet in a few hours, when reality sinks in, she'll be obsessed with finding his killer.'

Thor nodded. 'You think any of us -?'

'Could be the killer? Yeah. I do think that. Some of us are definitely capable.' Her green eyes were blank but there was something in the tone of her voice that made Thor believe she thought of herself as a part of the ones who were capable.

'Hey, I heard Wanda wanted to bury her brother, can I help?' Steve asked, appearing out of nowhere.

Natasha gave him a sad half-smile. 'Of course, Rogers. You and Thor here just need to find something to dig the grave with.'

'I'll get onto that,' Steve agreed. 'Can you just tell her that we're going to need to, you know - take away her brother's body?'

'Yeah. Yeah, I will. Thanks, guys.' She turned and walked away from them, her hand drifting unconsciously to the gun holster at her hip.

'One of us is a killer,' Steve said softly, watching her go. 'It could be any of us, really. I could've killed him. You could've killed him. I just - I don't know, man, this is terrible.'

'Sometimes I wonder if humanity is meant to come back down here,' Thor agreed. 'We are only children, and we are just a hundred, yet somehow one of us is murdered. If we bring down the entirety of the human race, it will undoubtedly lead to chaos.'

On that morbid note, they both walked over to the drop ship, where the supplies from the bunker had been kept.

Natasha had been right. There were many large metal sheets, most of them rusted and broken off at the edges. Thor and Steve picked ones that looked fairly sturdy and headed outside to where Natasha, Vision and Wanda were sitting, Wanda sobbing into Vision's shirt. Her brother lay on the ground, his eyes open but unseeing, the knife still in his chest.

Thor and Steve picked a corner of the camp not too far away but still close enough to visit and began to dig, shoveling out large piles of dirt. It wasn't as easy as it was in movies - Thor found himself straining only halfway through the dig and after he made a decent-sized hole, his arms were aching.

Vision, Wanda and Clint carried Pietro's body to the grave. Before they put him in, Natasha delicately pulled the knife out of his chest, closed his eyelids and then arranged his hands so they covered the wound. When they laid him on the dirt, it looked like he could be sleeping.

Wanda was wiping away her tears, her jaw set and her eyes burning. Natasha was right. Her brother had been murdered and she wanted justice. Thor couldn't blame her. She stared blankly as they covered Pietro with the dirt, her hands clasped in front of her. Only a few delinquents had attended the impromptu funeral.

Much to Thor's surprise, Loki had come as well, his eyes inscrutable, his black hair slicked back. He hung out a good distance from everyone else, and as soon as they smoothed down the soil and stuck a piece of metal there to mark it, he left quickly, ignoring Thor. He didn't give any explanation as to why he was there in the first place.

'I want to know who did it,' Wanda said firmly. Her eyes were dry. Thor was impressed. She was just fifteen yet she was handling the death of her brother remarkably well. 

'We don't know who did it,' Steve told her gently.

'Well, then, let's find out! There's only ninety four of us now -'

'Everybody shut up.' Natasha's voice was quiet and commanding.

They all fell silent and looked at her.

She was turning the knife over in her hands, Pietro's blood still on it. Her jaw was clenched and her green gaze was cold. Barnes slipped to her side and looked down at the knife - and his hands curled into fists. 'You don't think...'

'Who else?' she asked him, her voice flat.

'What are you talking about?' Wanda asked her.

In reply, she held out the knife.

Thor walked over to her to get a closer look, as did everyone else. 'Look at the hilt,' she told them, and they did.

Carved into the hilt were the initials B. R.

'B. R. ... what do they stand for?' Steve asked, clearly struggling to connect the dots.

'Think, Steve. Obviously you would carve the initials of your name into your own damn knife - what other initials would you carve? And there's only one fucking person in this camp with the initials B. R.,' Barnes told him angrily.

'Brock Rumlow,' whispered Steve.

'Motherfucker.' Wanda was already marching across the camp, her fists clenched, fire burning in her eyes.

'Wanda, wait!'

Steve took off after her, and so did the others. Loki's head shot up and he watched them go past him with an almost fearful look in his eyes, but Thor blinked and his brother's face had slipped back into its usual uncaring mask. He was about to go to Loki when Wanda's angry shout from across the camp distracted him.

_'You killed my brother!'_

She was standing in front of Rumlow, jabbing a finger into his chest. The entire camp was focused on the two of them. Everyone was watching.

'What the fuck are you talking about, girl?' Rumlow asked her, genuine confusion in his eyes.

'Don't lie, you sick fuck. You killed him. This is _your fucking knife._ You killed him with your fucking knife and now you have the audacity to _fucking deny it!'_ she screamed furiously.

He raised his hands in self-defense, his two buddies coming to stand beside him.

'Yeah, that's my knife, but - but I swear I didn't kill him. I have no idea what you're talking about and you're in my fucking face, so move, psycho -'

'Why was _your_ fucking knife in my brother's body?' Wanda spat, holding up Rumlow's knife.

 _'I have no fucking idea!'_ he hissed back, trying to grab it from her, but Steve pushed in front of her.

'Don't lie, Rumlow. You're a murderer and you're just trying to worm your way out of this. What's next, you lost the knife the day before the murder? A spirit in the woods picked it up and stabbed Pietro? It just walked over there and ended up in his chest?' Steve's words were vehement and icy.

'I'm telling you, man, I _really_ didn't do this shit -'

'Kill him!' an angry voice shouted from the crowd that had gathered around.

Rumlow went pale. 'I swear, I didn't do anything, you're just blaming me because I'm the most convenient to blame -'

'Yeah, kill him!' another voice shouted. 'He did Pietro in, he deserves the same thing done to him!'

'Wait, no, everybody stop -' Steve began, but the crowd had already begun to move towards Rumlow.

And they were out for blood.

* * *

Bruce watched in horror at the events that unfolded in front of his eyes.

The crowd had pinned Rumlow down and had easily knocked aside his two buddies. They tied him, gagged him and made sure he wasn't able to move a muscle before they started.

The kid at the front - his name was Wade, Bruce remembered - kicked Rumlow in the ass and everyone else copied him, kicking and punching every bit of Rumlow they could reach. Wanda was standing aside, her hands covering her mouth in horror, and Steve and Bucky were trying to pull the crowd away but to no avail.

'Guys, calm down, _please_ \- I know he killed my brother but no one deserves to die like this -' Wanda was pleading, but no one paid any attention to her.

Some kids, like T'Challa, Sam and Scott, were just watching the carnage unfold, their faces bearing the same expression as Bruce. Steve looked at all of them desperately. 'You need to help, they're going to beat him to death,' he said, troubled.

'Guys, are you all _fucking insane?_ I know you're mad but doesn't mean you murder somebody, what the fuck?' Tony was saying, trying to catch the crowd's attention.

'Killers get what they fucking deserve!' somebody yelled, and everyone cheered.

'Holy shit, that's sick,' Tony muttered. 'That's utterly disgusting.' 

Bruce ran in and, along with Peter Parker, tried to drag Wade from the prostate body on the forest floor. 

'C'mon, babe, what are you doing?' Wade protested. 

'I'm trying to help you! Killing someone isn't the answer to everything, Wade!' Peter said, panicked. 

'It should be!'

_'No -!'_

Bruce watched in horror as they pushed Rumlow's buddies onto the ground as well. They tried to shelter themselves by holding up their arms over their head but the crowd was absolutely brutal and didn't give them a chance.

'Stop!' a voice said angrily, half-begging, half-commanding. 'Stop, please! I did it!'

Everyone froze.

Bruce turned to the source of the voice - and his jaw dropped.

Loki.

Thor's little brother, Loki.

He was standing there, his eyes defiant. 'I fucking did it. I killed him. Pietro. _I killed him,_ okay? Now are you happy? Stop. Just leave Rumlow alone.'

'Loki, _what -?'_

The voice was so heartbroken and desolate that Bruce didn't even have to look to know it was Thor.

'Don't talk to me,' Loki sneered. 'Maybe if you were paying attention you would've known that I was gonna do it, but you weren't. That's not my fucking problem.'

Rumlow had managed to get the gag and the bonds off with the help of his sidekicks.

'Now do you fucking believe me?' he shouted angrily, staggering to his feet. His face was so bloody and covered in dirt Bruce could barely make out his mouth and eyes.

'Well, then?' Rumlow demanded. 'Aren't you going to kill him? Killers get what they deserve, right?'

When no one made any move towards Loki, he laughed. A maniacal, bitter laugh that chilled Bruce to the bone.

'Just _fucking_ awesome. When you think it's me, no matter how much I protest, you still beat the shit out of me. But here you have a confession and you're not even going to acknowledge that? Where's your justice now, Wilson? Weren't you kicking me in the dick just a few moments ago? What's wrong, Rogers?'

His challenge went unanswered. Steve couldn't even look him in the face. Thor was staring at Loki as if he didn't know who the boy was. 

'Someone fucking say something!' he roared, so suddenly that Bruce jumped.

'Just - just shut up for a moment, Rumlow, okay? I'm sorry. I didn't mean for that to happen and I'm sorry but we really need to deal with this situation,' Steve finally got out, his voice tense, and Bruce could see the remorse in his eyes. 

Rumlow laughed again, that same crazy laugh. 'Your sense of justice is fucking twisted, and I hope you know that,' he spat to everyone at large, and stalked off, closely followed by his two buddies. They went a good distance away and watched, hatred in their eyes, as everyone stared at the still-belligerent Loki.

'Why?' Thor said brokenly.

Loki shook his head, his mouth twisting into a humorless grin. 'Why? Why should I answer that, brother? Do I really need a reason? It doesn't matter now, does it? I killed him, and you're going to kill me. Rumlow's right. Where's your justice now?' he taunted, but he was doing his best to avoid looking anyone directly in the eye.

'We aren't going to hurt you,' Steve said quietly.

 _'Fucking_ wonderful, Rogers,' Rumlow yelled from across the camp.

'But we are going to have to punish you,' Steve continued, ignoring Rumlow. 'We never meant to hurt anyone. We just wanted to find the killer. I don't know why you did it, but I hope you understand that what you've done is sick and fucked-up and we really can't have you in the camp anymore.'

Steve took a deep breath. 'Loki - and Rumlow, Sitwell and Rollins - leave the camp. Leave right now and if you come back, I swear I'll let them finish what they started.'

Rumlow, Sitwell and Rollins immediately began a series of protests but Steve shut them up.

'All in favor?'

The crowd started cheering.

Thor didn't say anything. He was just standing there, looking at Loki, who looked right back at him, his gaze still burning with defiance, daring him to say something. Thor didn't take the bait and turned away, walking in the opposite direction, his head bowed. Loki watched him go with an emotion akin to regret in his eyes, but when he saw Bruce watching he immediately steeled his expression.

'You can get your stuff and go now. Take just one knife,' Steve said firmly, and the four delinquents trooped off to the drop ship, Rumlow and his gang muttering in hatred. Bruce sighed. They were supposed to be the good guys, weren't they? Yet somehow Rumlow had nearly died for something he hadn't even done. 

'Shit's fucked up, isn't it?' Tony said, his dark eyes watching Loki as the fourteen-year-old trailed after Rumlow. 'I think it's safe to assume that we're a pretty screwed-up gang,' Bruce told him, and he nodded, exhaling sharply.

'I never thought I'd be saying this, but...' Tony stood up and clapped his hands thrice, loudly, and called out, 'Hey, can I make an announcement?' gaining everyone's attention. Once everyone was silent and looking at him, he began.

'I just wanted to say that if we continue like this then more of the fucked-up stuff like what happened today will repeat itself, and we're going nowhere by being insane unpredictable chimpanzees. We need a leader, or, y'know, someone who can make the decisions and we can vote - like a democracy - so we don't go crazy. Y'all agree?'

There were nods and noises of assent.

'Great, then. If we're voting, I'm going with Steve.' He grinned at the blond, who was turning pink.

'Me?' he squeaked.

'Yeah, genius.'

'I say Steve as well,' said Bucky immediately, and Sam, Scott and Wanda voiced their agreement.

'Steve's fine with me,' Bruce put in, and Thor nodded. 'He is fair. I am pleased with this arrangement.'

'Rogers is great,' Clint piped up, and much to everyone's surprise, Natasha nodded as well. 'Go ahead, Steve.'

'Well, I mean... thank you, guys, I'll try my best,' Steve finally said, still blushing. Tony's grin grew wider and he kissed Steve on the cheek. 'Good luck, babe.'

Steve went even redder amongst the chorus of 'aww's and 'get a room's.

'And if Steve's not there I say T'Challa,' Sam added, and everyone easily agreed. T'Challa was just as fair and as good of a leader as Steve.

'Okay, we're a functioning society, that's a lot more than we were a few minutes back,' Betty remarked, appearing out of nowhere.

'Then why does it feel like the reckoning has just begun?'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> another chapter :) with loki&thor angst :(
> 
> don't really have much to say other than yea, i killed off pietro. y'all knew it was gonna happen eventually. i've even put it in the tags. he's destined to die. sorry, pietro, but it is what it is ✌(-‿-)✌
> 
> hope y'all enjoyed, i know my posting schedule is wack but bear with me, see you next time and lots of love,
> 
> ╰⊱♥⊱╮ღ꧁ $ÂĈRЄÐØßĿĪVĪØИ ꧂ღ╭⊱♥≺


	7. if you know what's good for you

Thankfully, everything went uphill from Rumlow's and Loki's banishment.

The camp had organized itself into a functioning society, with assigned tents and equally distributed supplies. They had been stocking up on food because winter was fast approaching, and they had been fashioning crude spears and knives out of metal from the drop ship for defending themselves.

The only two guns in the camp were usually handled by Natasha and Bucky, the people who found them. Natasha's Glock was always on her person and she refused to let anyone else use it. There would always be one gun in the camp and if anyone was going out they would take the other one - Bucky's Smith and Wesson 629. The guns were, however, rarely used, because their ammunition supplies were very low.

They'd also devised a system for washing clothes because people couldn't wear the same clothes all the time. For those lucky enough to find clothes that fit them in the bunkers, they could switch between two sets, but the others had to occasionally jump into the nearby lake fully dressed and then wait for the sun to dry them off.

However, Steve still didn't know what the fuck he was going to do with Tony.

After they'd kissed that one time in the bunker, they didn't really make much contact. Of course, Tony being Tony, occasionally flirted and made innuendos and generally loved watching Steve squirm, but apart from that - and that little incident when they chose Steve as leader - he mostly didn't cross paths with him.

And Steve _liked_ the bastard. He was cocky, and annoying, and maybe a little bit of a chaotic dumbass, but he was still Tony - under that armor was a heart of gold and Steve was determined to see it. He knew Tony wasn't the arrogant dickhead they showed on the news, judging by the way he acted around Steve and the others.

But Tony was still infuriating and Steve couldn't understand him and he really would like to know what their relationship was. The only problem was - Tony wouldn't even talk to him.

Steve sighed and tried to clear his mind of the Tony-thoughts that threatened to overtake him.

'Stevie, you okay?' Bucky's concerned voice cut through his depressing internal monologue.

'I mean... kind of? Depends on your definition of okay,' Steve told him, accepting the bottle he was holding out and gulping down the water.

'You gotta stop moping over Stark and do something about it, you know,' Bucky said matter-of-factly, taking back the bottle. Steve nearly choked.

'What - I'm not moping -' he spluttered, trying not to get water all down his shirt.

Bucky rolled his eyes. 'Stevie, are you serious? Literally everyone in the camp knows your obsession with Stark. I'm pretty sure all of us are waiting eagerly for the day when you finally admit you're an idiot who wears his heart on his sleeve and that if you don't get off your ass and talk to Stark, you're going nowhere.'

'Wow, thanks, Buck, I never thought of that,' Steve said sarcastically, 'now I just need the courage to do it. Do you have any spare? Oh, wait, you're the guy who kissed Natasha Romanoff once and then spent the next few days staying as far away from her as humanly possible.'

Bucky groaned and dropped his head in his hands. 'Okay, number one - we are not talking about me and her. We've sorted things out - we just like to do it in private. You, however, are a completely different case and don't you dare get started on my relationships when you're -'

'Alright, alright, I'll talk to Tony, calm down, jeez,' Steve huffed, and Bucky grinned triumphantly.

'There's the Stevie I know and unfortunately love!' he said gleefully, thumping Steve's back.

'Yeah, yeah, keep gloating over my pathetic fate,' Steve mumbled, but he was smiling too.

'Okay, your disastrous love affair aside, do you wanna come with me and Clint? We're going hunting again, but this time deeper into the jungle. I think Nat's coming too but I don't know,' Bucky questioned.

Steve shrugged. 'Anything to keep me distracted, yeah.'

'Promise you'll talk to Stark after.'

'No.'

'Why not?'

'Because I do what I want, Buck.'

'Coward.'

'Shut up.'

'I dare you to talk to him.'

'Shut up.'

'Are you serious? Did my motivational speech have no effect on you?' Bucky grumbled.

'I don't think that prattling could be considered a speech, let alone motivational.'

'Fuck you. Oh, wait, you'd rather fuck Stark, and you would, if you just talked to him.'

'I swear I'm going to stab you,' Steve said threateningly, as Bucky snickered.

'When did Rogers become so homicidal?' Clint mused, appearing out of nowhere and making Bucky jump.

'Jesus, Barton, give a warning or something, I nearly had a heart attack,' he complained, as Clint leaned over and took a swig from the water bottle.

'Not my fault you're a pussy, Barnes,' he mocked, and Bucky rolled his eyes. 'Says the only virgin in the camp,' he taunted back.

'Why is it that I always find you three bickering like three-year-olds whenever I come by?' said a very familiar voice, and Steve's heart both skipped a beat and then sank.

'You're one to speak, Stark,' Clint began, but Tony cut him off.

'Not interested, Barton. I came because you were blabbing something about a hunting trip and I'm _in,_ you son of a bitch, why didn't you tell me?'

'He's coming,' Natasha confirmed, materializing behind Tony, her trusty gun on her hip as usual. Steve chanced a quick glance at Bucky, who was openly staring at her, and smirked.

 _'Ugh,_ why me?' Clint groaned dramatically, falling onto Natasha, who smacked him away with a disgusted look on her face. 

Bucky sighed, realizing that if Natasha was coming there was no way he could carry his weapon, and handed his gun to a passing Scott, who looked startled, and then very delicately carried it all the way across the camp, keeping it at least a foot away from his body, and gave it to T'Challa, while Bucky watched with an amused look on his face.

'Are we leaving, or are you dysfunctional assholes going to stand around chatting like old ladies the whole time?' Tony questioned, and at his prompting they all trooped towards the trees, weapons out and ready, Clint going off on a tangent about how Tony was the most dysfunctional out of all of them and the king of assholes while he was at it.

They'd familiarized themselves with the forest around them in the past few days. Steve had made several trips to the hill nearby and then back. No one was willing to venture into the thick jungle towards Mount Weather, but they had to do it at some point, because they would either run out of supplies or freeze in the cold, as winter was fast approaching.

Natasha and Clint were by far the best hunters. They worked together, Clint using his arrows and a bow he'd somehow whittled, Natasha using her knives, and somehow they managed to get the most amount of kills in the entire camp. On special occasions - like today - they'd allow some other people to tag along and watch them kick ass.

The delinquents had found that only some of the animals were grotesquely deformed. Most were actually quite normal-looking, and there were also a few new animals Steve had never read about in his textbooks. Thor, who'd been considerably depressed after Loki's departure, somehow managed to regain his spirits and valiantly accepted the role as taste-tester.

Steve, Bucky and Tony hung back, allowing Clint and Natasha to scout ahead and look for animal tracks. He remembered an incident when Clint had actually found panther tracks and they'd immediately changed direction, heading the opposite way as fast as they could.

Natasha looked up and gave them a thumbs-up, signalling that she'd found something. Clint darted back. 'Antelope,' he whispered. 'Blackbuck antelope, if you want to be specific, but it's food, and we've found it.' Tony let out a very soft whoop and Bucky grinned.

'It's injured,' Natasha told them quietly, when they tip-toed up to her. 'It's a male and it's injured. We should be able to take it down in one shot.' 'We shall feast like kings,' Clint proclaimed in a low voice, and Natasha rolled her eyes at him.

Steve and the others shadowed Natasha as she carefully followed the animal tracks, which Steve could barely see, but if she did, who was he to say anything? She was frowning slightly as she went along, though, and the tracks got more clearer and clearer, even a few blood drops appearing. The animal was clearly injured.

She stopped and held up a hand, and they all froze in their tracks.

'It's right there,' she mouthed, pointing at the tall bushes. Very delicately, she pushed aside a bush to get a better view.

Sure enough, an antelope was standing in the middle of the clearing, its leg visibly wounded.

'Can't get a clear shot, too many trees,' Clint mouthed at her, and she gestured for them to go back a bit.

'Clint, get in the clearing, get a clear shot. You'll have just one try. Steve, flank him on his right and James on his left. Tony, stay right here, and I'll go around. In case it escapes you need to be ready. Got it?' she whispered, and they all nodded. 

'Great. Everyone, in position.'

Steve jogged towards the direction Natasha pointed him in and managed to get a decent view of the clearing if he crouched down and peeked underneath several tall plants. He could see the antelope, limping across the forest floor.

Something was off about it. It seemed to go in circles, its ears pricked up, but they hadn't made any noise. Maybe it had sensed them, somehow...

Steve narrowed his eyes, watching it as it did its strange little dance. Clint crept closer, his blond hair clearly visible amongst the greenery, his bowstring taut. 

Just as Clint stepped into the clearing, it hit Steve.

The wound on the animal's leg was made by a knife.

It was made by a human.

The same thing seemed to occur to Natasha and she shouted Clint's name just as Clint's eyes widened and he dropped his bow.

Steve stood up. 

_Clint was just fucking impaled._

And the next moment he was yanked up and vanished.

* * *

Tony had seen a lot of strange things in his life. 

But what he saw that day definitely took the cake.

He'd been in position, hadn't moved an inch - just like Romanoff had told him - and he was watching Clint make his move when Romanoff shouted Clint's name.

From literally nowhere a spear had come flying and had struck Barton in the midsection. He'd dropped his bow and quiver and had collapsed to his knees, which was unsurprising considering that he'd just been stabbed.

Steve, Bucky, Natasha and Tony had all stood up and made to run towards Clint at the same time, but all of them were too late. Clint was yanked up into the air and simply disappeared.

'What the _fuck?'_ Natasha exclaimed, both fury and disguised, but very much present, panic in her voice. She sprinted towards where Clint had vanished and turned in a circle, staring at the treetops, her gun already out and by the looks of it, safety switched off.

'Did he - did he just disappear?' Bucky asked incredulously, already by Natasha's side. 'What in the actual fuck just happened,' Tony burst out, his mind still trying to process what he'd just witnessed. 'Where did he go?' Steve called out, craning his neck upwards.

'Do I look like I fucking know?' Natasha yelled angrily, aiming her gun at the treetops.

'Nat - please, just calm down - we'll find him, okay? We're gonna find him, he can't be that far, whatever took him should be just there,' Bucky told her softly, a hand on her shoulder. 'Just breathe. You're a tracker. He's injured - so that equals blood trail.'

'Blood trail,' Natasha said suddenly, looking towards Bucky. 'Yeah - yeah, there should be a blood trail. Look for a blood trail.'

'There you go,' Bucky told her, and she gave him a weak smile.

The four of them spread out, searching the ground for any indication of where Clint went. Natasha was attempting to climb the tree directly behind the spot where he'd disappeared. The antelope was long gone.

'How the fuck does someone disappear like that?' Steve muttered, his face both anxious and tense.

'What the fuck even took him?' Bucky agreed.

Tony walked a bit further away from them, his mind alternating between screaming about how Clint was gone and probably dead and then berating him for avoiding Steve after that night in the bunker. They hadn't had sex, much to Tony's disappointment. Steve slept on the couch and gave Tony the bed. It had been very quiet after they kissed.

He knew he should've tried and talked to Steve about it but he couldn't bring himself to. Tony Stark, flirt extraordinaire, playboy and all-around heartbreaker, couldn't bring himself to admit his real feelings to a boy because he was afraid of getting rejected.

Wow. Did he actually think that?

He actually thought that.

What was the world coming to?

Nothing good if Tony Stark couldn't get laid.

He was so engrossed in his Steve-filled thoughts that he very nearly missed the blood splatter in front of him.

'Guys, I found something!' he called out.

They all came running over and Tony purposefully kept his eyes away from Steve as they took a look at the blood.

'Fresh. Definitely Clint's.' Natasha was already moving ahead, one hand carrying the gun and the other holding Clint's bow.

Steve, who had Clint's quiver slung across his shoulders, gave Tony a swift glance and then followed her. Tony tried not to think too much about that and went after Natasha.

They were walking deeper and deeper into the jungle, following Clint's trail. If Clint really had been speared and kidnapped by whatever the fuck was hiding out here, Tony really didn't think it was a good idea to walk directly into its lair, but he knew if he ever told this to Natasha he would be castrated, so he kept his mouth shut.

It was clear that everyone else - including Natasha - was thinking something along the lines of that, however, judging by their uncertain glances and hesitant steps. Occasionally they would stop and listen because they heard some noise but it usually was just the wind.

 _Hopefully_ just the wind.

They were following random splatters of blood. When someone said blood trail, Tony had imagined droplets of blood conveniently forming a line directly towards the injured person, not occasional handprints of blood and some random droplets here and there.

Natasha said that it was because he was being carried by somebody - or something - which was why he was moving so fast and leaving irregular splotches of blood. Sometimes they'd come across drag marks in the dirt or something just as ominous, like a torn piece of cloth from Clint's trousers.

Natasha was getting increasingly more desperate. She was an expert at not showing it, though. Only when she glanced behind at them could Tony see the actual pain and fear in her green eyes. 

It was really hard to track someone, no matter how much they were bleeding out, Tony realized. Once they lost the trail, beside a waterfall, and they'd all just collapsed in defeat, crawling to the water and splashing their faces with it.

It was only when Bucky saw a few drops of blood that they realized they were going in the right direction.

They'd been walking for around half an hour? Maybe more? 

Tony tried really hard not to think of Clint bleeding out from his wounds. That spear had gone right through him. He wasn't a doctor of any kind and never claimed to be, but even he was pretty sure that was almost fatal.

No one had to say it. They were all thinking it.

Steve was walking beside him, eyes focused on the back of Bucky's head. Tony tried to ignore his presence, but he just couldn't. Steve was like a fucking magnet, or something - Tony couldn't keep away.

'Hey,' he said finally, quietly so that Bucky and Natasha wouldn't hear.

'Hey,' Steve said back, once he understood Tony was talking to him.

'Do you think we can find Clint in time?'

'We have to,' Steve said passionately, his jaw tense.

Well. That was the end of that.

'What do you think took him?' Tony tried again.

Steve shrugged. 'It's highly unlikely that there's a colony of well-functioning, spear-wielding assassin chimpanzees, so I'd say it was humans.'

'How? I mean - we're, like, the only humans on Earth, everyone else is in space.'

'Yeah, well, clearly not. I don't know, maybe they holed out in more of those bunkers?'

'For years? Unlikely.'

'I don't have another explanation,' Steve said, shrugging again.

Tony inhaled sharply.

'I just wanted to say - about the other night...' He tried to rack up the courage. 'I like you a lot, Steve, and I hope we weren't just a one-time fling -'

At that exact moment, there was a muted gasp from Natasha and a yell of shock from Bucky.

Steve gave him a single anguished look and ran towards the others, leaving Tony staring after him, the rest of his words hanging in the air, unspoken.

He jogged towards the others, who were just standing there in shock.

'What are you looking at - _fuck.'_

Clint.

He was in the middle of a clearing, bound to a tree with rope around his ankles, waist and arms, his head lolling onto his chest. He was very clearly unconscious. His clothes were damp with blood and he was gagged. The spear had been removed and was nowhere to be seen. 

Carved into the tree above his head were the words 'stay away if you know what's good for you'.

Yeah.

Fuck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ACKKK the wonderful nxghtmarefuel (https://nxghtmarefuel.tumblr.com/) made the aesthetic moodboard for my fic and it's soooo pretty, thank you so much! i love it!
> 
> it's up there on the first chapter, go check it out :)
> 
> this was interesting to write. poor clint :( but it had to be done~ finally i can move ahead with my plot, let's see what the fuck i'm gonna do because i'm making this up as i go along, i'm just as clueless as y'all lmao
> 
> that's all i got to say, see you tomorrow, and lots of love,
> 
> ╰⊱♥⊱╮ღ꧁ $ÂĈRЄÐØßĿĪVĪØИ ꧂ღ╭⊱♥


	8. all i want is a normal life

Natasha was so tired.

She'd been sitting next to Clint's bed for the past day, not moving, not even for food and water. Bruce, who had been taking care of him, hadn't moved away either. Steve came in occasionally, his eyebrows furrowed in concern, and had given them plastic cups with water and some bread from the drop ship, which neither of them had touched.

Clint was only alive for this long because his wound had been treated by whatever had taken him. The spear had been removed and the injury had been cauterized and patched up with some sort of poultice that none of them recognized. He had been unconscious the entire time.

But he was dying. The wound was fatal, and if he didn't get the proper medicine soon then there was no hope for him.

Bruce already had to cut away the infected flesh around his wound and Clint had woken up, his eyes glazed over, screaming until his throat was raw. Natasha and Steve had to grab him by the shoulders and pin him down as Bruce worked on his wound. When Bruce was finished Clint's eyes rolled back into his head and he blacked out again.

Natasha didn't show outward concern. She never did. But she felt it. It was gnawing away at her, taunting her. After years of not feeling any emotion at all except for hurt, anger, pain - and sometimes guilt - it was so unfamiliar to her to actually care so much about someone that she would stay up all night beside them as they slept.

They were in the bunker with the child's toys. They had put him in the drop ship, but he was screaming so much the younger children started crying, and people kept walking in on them and disturbing Bruce. Eventually they decided he could stay in the bunker as there was a bed, and although it wasn't that far away from the camp, nobody would interrupt them accidentally and no one could hear them.

Natasha exhaled sharply and looked over at Bruce. The poor boy had tried so hard, staying awake the entire night along with Natasha, working on Clint the whole time, and finally he'd fallen asleep, exhausted. Betty had come along to help him but she couldn't stay for more than an hour at a time.

Natasha rested her head in her hands. She remembered a moment in the drop ship when two delinquents had walked in, complaining about the screams. One of them had actually told her that Clint was a lost cause and trying to help him would be a waste of their supplies. She'd almost taken his head off but Bruce had restrained her.

'Hey,' a quiet voice said, and she looked up.

James was standing in the doorway, leaning against the wall, his blue eyes unreadable. He was wearing a jacket even in the heat and had his hands in his pockets. She wondered if it was deliberate or an action which he naturally did to avoid strange looks.

'Hey,' she said. He must've discerned the fatigue in her voice because his eyes softened and he stood up straight. 

'Darcy and Betty are here. They wanted to give you both a break,' he informed her, walking across the room and gently shaking Bruce awake. 'Hey, man. You can rest for a bit now, Betty's going to take over Clint, she's got an idea. You too, Natalia.'

His using her real name made her heart skip a beat. She hadn't expected him to stick to it. She didn't even know why she'd told him her real name when she hadn't even told it to Clint, but she had, and he seemed to like it.

'I can't,' she told him, 'I'm not going to leave him, I'm not tired.' 

He arched an eyebrow. 'That was the worst lie I've ever heard and I've had to deal with Steve breaking his arm and then saying he was just scratched.'

Bruce laughed weakly in his corner and Natasha rolled her eyes.

'Listen, I'm fine, okay? I can stay here. I'm going to stay here.'

'You're not, because you're going to collapse any moment. Both of you literally haven't eaten or drank anything for the past twenty hours. There is no way you're staying here.'

He paused, and when she didn't make any move to get up, he sighed.

'I know both of you are worried about Clint but, like I said, Betty had an idea. She thinks she knows what to do for him. If she tries it and it works, will you come with me?' he asked tentatively.

Natasha hesitated, and then nodded.

He gave her a small grin. 'Well, then. You two can come in now!' he called out to whoever was waiting in the main room of the bunker.

Natasha still didn't know what to think of him. Sure, the kiss was nice. It was more than nice, if she was being honest. They hadn't fucked, or anything - they'd just sat up in the bunker for most of the night, talking about anything and everything. He'd told her how he lost his arm, she'd told him about her hard life growing up - but she never mentioned anything about the KGB or how she was an assassin from the Red Room.

And then they'd slept in the sleeping bags and went back to camp a few hours later.

Talking to him was nice. Kissing him was better. She didn't know what to do now.

Could you tell she had not the least clue about starting a relationship?

It was strange. She enjoyed being matchmaker and she could read people like books. It was easy to solve people's relationship problems, get others to start dating, seduce somebody and then murder them - that was all fine.

A relationship in which she was involved, however...

Her thoughts were interrupted by James, Darcy and Betty entering the room. Darcy immediately went to Clint's side, her eyes anxious. She scanned his pale face and then glanced at Natasha, who had her chin on her hands and was watching them both.

Betty approached more cautiously. She smiled at Bruce and then crouched next to Clint, whose shirt had been cut away in order to access the wound better.

James came to stand by Natasha. She was hyper-aware of him. The gun on his hip, his soft brown hair, his relaxed stance - and his eyes. His light blue gaze was on her, watching her movements - she could sense it, and she was more affected by it than she'd like to admit. She turned away a bit so he wouldn't see the light color on her cheeks.

'The poultice is still in place, isn't it?' Betty questioned, and Bruce nodded.

'Well, then, I thought we could take it apart. See what's in there and go look for whatever it is because it helped Clint, didn't it? Whoever - or whatever - made it knew what they were doing.'

She looked around the room to see if everyone was in agreement.

Natasha shrugged and Bruce nodded. 'Yeah, that's not a bad idea at all.'

Natasha stood up. 'So, you're saying if you can find out what's in that poultice, and if I bring back the ingredients for it -'

'I could possibly recreate it,' Bruce finished.

She turned to look at James and he must've seen the way her eyes lit up because he grinned at her. 'Then what are you waiting for?' he asked, and Bruce and Betty immediately got to work, carefully removing the poultice from Clint's wound.

Natasha wanted to stay and watch, but she knew that if she were to go out and look for the ingredients of the poultice she would have to conserve her energy. Also, the wave of relief that washed over her was so strong she felt herself tearing up and immediately looked away. When James tapped her on the shoulder she followed him with no arguments at all.

When they were outside and she shut the door behind her, he turned to face her with the same charming smirk.

'Am I dreaming or did Natasha Romanoff almost cry?'

'Shut up.'

He grinned.

'Pretty sure Darcy thinks you're stealing her boyfriend.'

'Yeah, well, let her think what she wants,' Natasha muttered, collapsing on the couch and closing her eyes.

She felt the other side of the couch sink down and when she peeked through her eyelashes he was sitting right there, his gaze trained on her, sprawled against the armrest and the smirk still firmly in place.

'What?' she asked finally.

He shrugged. 'Nothing. Just... yeah, nothing.'

She arched an eyebrow, clearly showing her disbelief of his crappy lie and he looked away.

Deciding that he wasn't worth wasting her rest period on, she curled up like a cat on her side of the couch, taking great pains not to touch him in any way, shut her eyes, and fell asleep.

'Natalia. Natalia, wake up.'

She blearily opened an eye. James was standing in front of her, looking excited.

'What time is it?'

'It's okay, you just slept for half an hour. Bruce and Betty were done around ten minutes back but they didn't want to disturb you.'

'What? They're done? They found out what was in the poultice?' She sat up straight and hopped off the couch, frustration sinking in. If she wasted precious time napping in the bunker -

'Yeah, they were done, but you just missed the whole point. They wanted you to sleep so you wouldn't pass out from exhaustion later on, Natalia,' he chided, and she huffed impatiently, already opening the door to the room Clint was in.

Bruce and Betty were exactly where Natasha had last seen them, but they had the demolished poultice beside them. She could make out a red plant and a green gloopy mess, but not much else. Darcy was still in Natasha's old spot, holding one of Clint's hands.

'Hey,' Bruce greeted. 'We think we've figured out what's in this poultice. A poultice, essentially, is the direct application of the crude, fresh herb to the skin, usually to reduce the chance inflammatory or septic wounds. They've used all the regular herbs - chamomile, for antiseptic properties, crushed poppy heads, flaxseed, honey - we can get all that. There's some in this very bunker.'

He paused, and then pointed out the red plant Natasha had seen. 'However, they've also used whatever that is. I think it's some species of seaweed. It seems to have a good amount of medicinal properties, judging by how long Clint's managed to survive on it, but I suppose you're going to have to go and find it, along with the others I mentioned.'

Natasha was already halfway to the door. She took one last glance at the seaweed and then nodded. 'Yeah. I'll go and get it.'

'I'm coming,' James said firmly.

She looked at him.

He grinned.

She sighed in defeat.

'Let's go, then.'

* * *

Clint was in agony.

For the second time in two days.

But this was far worse than whatever weird red welts the acid had given him.

Far, far worse.

He couldn't move, couldn't speak, couldn't even think properly. It felt like he was burning up.

He didn't remember much at all. He knew he had been stalking that antelope - and then Natasha had called his name? He had been turning to look at her when suddenly his insides felt like they were on fire.

He'd looked down and he realized he'd been impaled.

The next moment he was dangling upside-down and being carried at ridiculous speeds, definitely bleeding out, barely able to form coherent thoughts. At one point he'd hit his head and then blacked out. He hadn't seen his attackers' faces once, but he knew they were human. No animal could move like that, act with such grace and purpose.

Unless Earth had been taken over by aliens.

In which case they were all screwed.

Not that those crazy homicidal humans were much better.

The next thing he knew, he was tied to a tree stump, gagged and unable to move, his wound somehow cleaned but still throbbing in intense pain. He'd looked around, tried to free himself, tried to call out his friends' names - tried to do anything, really - but eventually fatigue and distress took over and he blacked out again.

His friends must've found him because he woke up to them cutting away at his wound, and all the rage of the burning fire was back. He screamed, screamed louder than he'd ever done in his entire life, screamed until his throat was fucking raw and all his words were broken whispers - and then he'd passed out for the third time.

He'd passed out more on this one day than he'd passed out in his seventeen years of life.

And now Clint could feel fingers entangled with his, a girl's hand, judging by how soft it was, and quiet voices discussing something he couldn't quite catch.

He tried to think who would be holding his hand.

Natasha? Nah. She was far from the weepy, holding-hands, sitting-by-the-bedside kind.

He literally couldn't think of any other girl that would willingly sit by him and hold his hand while he slept.

He groaned and tried to force his eyes open. 

The voices fell quiet.

'Clint?' a familiar voice asked joyfully. It was feminine and definitely belonged to the girl holding his hand.

'Darcy?' he croaked, finally managing to blink open his eyes.

Sure enough, there she was, with her cheeky smile, dancing eyes and wavy brown hair, gaze focused on his face, her fingers entwined with his. Behind her was Bruce, sleeping against the wall, with another girl Clint couldn't quite place - Betty Ross, he remembered.

He looked down at himself.

He was shirtless.

He was shirtless and bloody and looked like an absolute mess when Darcy Lewis was sitting _right next to him._

'Please tell me I'm dreaming,' he muttered.

'Nope,' Darcy said cheerfully, but her voice was rather shaky. 'Sadly, all of this is real.'

He took a closer look at her. She looked on the verge of tears, her bottom lip wobbling a little, but she was smiling down at him. 

He tried to smile back but he was pretty sure he looked like a clown.

'Where am I?'

'Bunker. You were out for almost a whole day. Natasha and Bruce were sitting with you the whole time. Natasha left maybe six hours ago with Bucky to get herbs for the poultice,' she said, and Clint could definitely detect the quiver in her tones.

So. Natasha _was_ the sitting-by-the-beside kind.

He still wasn't sure that she had been crying or holding his hand, though.

'Wow, I really am loved,' he said, trying an attempt at a grin, and then wincing when bolts of pain shot through his body.

Okay. No smiling.

Bruce and Betty quietly filed out of the room, Bruce looking on the verge of collapse, Betty half-supporting him. They shut the door behind them, leaving Clint and Darcy alone.

'They really did stay up all night, didn't they?' Clint asked, looking at where Bruce had just left.

Darcy nodded. 'We thought you were going to die,' she said softly.

'Oh, you do care about me,' he said cheerfully, and she smacked him lightly.

'Of course I do, dumbass. I won't for much longer if you keep making smart remarks, though,' she warned, but there was a teasing glint in her eye. 

'What do you think almost killed me? I need to get them back,' Clint said matter-of-factly, narrowing his eyes at the blood on the bedspread.

'We don't know for sure. Steve said it was humans, Natasha said that we couldn't tell for sure before knowing all the facts, and Tony's saying it's aliens from Mars.'

'Tony's right,' he told her seriously.

Her face was one of shock for roughly two seconds before she realized he was joking and she smacked him again.

'I swear I'm going to finish the job myself,' she threatened, and he grinned before he could catch himself and pain rocked his body again.

'Well - that's only if they don't do it first,' he got out through gritted teeth, and she looked towards the door, concerned.

'Should I call -?'

'No, no, it's fine. Bruce needs to rest,' Clint told her quickly, and she relaxed a bit in her chair.

'I mean, your sense of humor may be terrible but at least you've still got it,' she told him.

'Yeah, right, you're just saying that because you wanna hide the fact that my jokes are way better than yours,' he snorted, and she rolled her eyes, smiling.

'Whatever helps you sleep at night,' she said, leaning back.

'I bet you stayed awake all night because you were scared about me.'

'I did not!' she protested, but he could see the blush on her cheeks.

'Did too.'

_'Did not!'_

'Did too.'

'I _swear_ I did not.'

'No shame in admitting you did.'

'Okay, I did. Now what're you gonna do about it?'

'This,' he said, and surprising her, himself and the rest of the world he propped himself up on his elbows and kissed her.

He was nearly unconscious from the pain that followed his action but he was kissing her.

You're dying, Clint.

_I'm also kissing Darcy._

Okay, but you're dying.

_I'm kissing her. I don't care._

You're a dumbass.

_You're me._

His internal debate was resolved when there was a commotion outside and they broke apart, staring into each other's wide eyes and quickly trying to get rid of their flushed appearances.

Bucky and Natasha burst in through the front door, both of them disheveled and dirty with uncharacteristically panicked faces. Natasha leaned against the wall and Bucky dropped to the floor, both of them trying to catch their breath. Bucky's jacket pocket and Natasha's pants' back pocket were both bulging.

'Got what you asked for,' choked out Bucky, who'd managed to regain his composure, as Bruce and Betty rushed into the room.

'Also nearly died,' Natasha added, sucking in a deep breath. 'We saw them. The ones who took you. They're people. Normal people. They look like us, act like us - I don't know how, but they're on the planet, and they're human beings, and they're pissed off.'

'Also, they have a fuckton of weapons,' Bucky added.

Clint closed his eyes and slumped back onto the bed as Bruce, Betty and Darcy clamored all at once, asking them for more details.

All he wanted was a normal life.

Was that _so hard?_

Apparently, yes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> new chapter! :) first off, i want to start by saying i have close to zero knowledge about treating wounds and all that medical stuff. if i get something horribly wrong then please tell me and definitely do not try this shit in real life, kids, because you'll most likely die. 
> 
> now that's off my chest i can now say that my dialogue skills are terrible and i want them taken away and i don't know why i started writing a multi-chapter fic which involves so much social contact when i prefer writing monologue and long descriptions in one-shots anyway.
> 
> i'm not abandoning this, though. i've spent way too much time and effort writing this.
> 
> that's all i wanna say, see you next time, drink lots of water, stay safe and lots of love,
> 
> ╰⊱♥⊱╮ღ꧁ $ÂĈRЄÐØßĿĪVĪØИ ꧂ღ╭⊱♥≺


	9. dead end

Thor was going to go crazy.

When Bucky and Natasha had come back and brought with them the news that yes, there were other human beings on the planet, yes, they were armed and dangerous, and yes, they actively wanted to get rid of the delinquents and wouldn't stop at murder, Steve decided that they needed to set up a guard and a border patrol.

And of course Thor was assigned to both.

Whenever he went out on border patrol he found himself unconsciously looking for Loki. He didn't know why Loki had done what he did. He didn't think he wanted to know. It hurt way more than he would like to admit, but he tried to hide it as best as he could, even though now he was known as the guy with the murderous adopted brother.

But even though Loki was a murderer Thor still loved him. Something had gone wrong along the way but Thor still believed that Loki was a good person, underneath all the lies and the trickery and the deceit.

That was why every single time he was out in the wilderness, he kept an eye out to see if he could find his brother. Especially now that they knew there was a gang of human beings out there who wanted to chase them off the planet. He tried not to think about the possibility that Loki had already been kidnapped by them. He was morose enough as it was.

He looked around at their camp. Surprisingly, the delinquents were organized and worked together without any hitches. Sure, Wade Wilson sometimes got into a skirmish and had to be saved by his boyfriend Peter Parker, and sure, Tony would sometimes break the rules just for the fun of it, but otherwise they were mostly functional.

They also had been stocking up - both for the winter and for defending themselves against the unknown humans. Bucky and Natasha described them as dressed in gear from head to toe, each with several visible guns and undoubtedly several concealed on their person, with the symbol of a red skull and tentacles on their breast.

Thor hefted the spear he'd been given. He wasn't sure why they decided a spear was best for him. He was quite skilled at using a war-hammer. Sadly, none of the inhabitants of the bunker had a war-hammer, much to his disappointment. He never understood people who kept guns but didn't keep war-hammers lying around.

Tony Stark might've occasionally broken the rules to go on a midnight run or drink the whiskey they found in the bunker - which, first off, was disgusting - but he did do valuable work. He'd attempted to make a radio that could communicate with the Helicarrier but it had failed spectacularly and had been utterly fried instead.

So, he made four walkie-talkies. They weren't very effective in long-range communication but they were very useful during a border patrol, or when a hunting party was sent out.

Barton had miraculously recovered. He was still too weak to go out on a hunting party or leave the camp at all, but he could walk around and assist in other ways, like helping Sam cook the food or reluctantly sharpening weapons alongside Wade and Okoye. That didn't stop him from jealously staring after Natasha and Bucky as they went out into the forest.

So far, they hadn't been attacked, which was a relief.

Thor sighed. He had been on the guard the night before so he had the day off today. The border patrol and the hunting party had left long back. He didn't know what to do. He'd tried to help Nakia and T'Challa train some of the younger kids in throwing knives but they were an efficient team and they clearly didn't need him.

Jane must have seen him sitting alone with his chin on his hands because she wandered over, her gaze both concerned and amused.

'You look cheerful today,' she commented, and he shrugged. 'There is not much to be joyful about, Jane,' he replied forlornly, and she sat next to him. 

'It's almost night. I wanted to show you the stars,' she told him.

'I have seen them from my home many times in the past,' he replied, furrowing his eyebrows.

'No, not like that. I've read that from Earth, you can see stars in patterns called constellations. The ancient Greeks named them. They really are quite beautiful to look at. From space all you see is little blobs of light in the darkness.'

Thor raised an eyebrow. 'So, these patterns are visible to us at night?'

'Yes, if we landed in a place where we can see them clearly. Do you want to come with me when it's dark out? We won't go far.'

Thor mused over this. He had spent most of his time on Earth worrying about his little brother. Maybe stargazing would help him take his mind off such thoughts.

'Why not? I shall accompany you, Jane.'

'Great!' she said, smiling. She stood up and walked away. 

It grew dark very soon. The delinquents were sitting around the massive bonfire they had lit, eating stale bread and leftover waterfowl. Thor had finished his portion a long time back.

Jane, true to her word, appeared in front of him, her hair tied back in a ponytail and a wide smile on her face.

'Let's go, shall we?' she asked, and the two of them made their way out of camp.

They walked for a bit, careful not to go too far away. Natasha speculated that the other human beings - the Grounders, the delinquents called them - were territorial, which was why they didn't attack until Clint and the others were deep into the jungle.

Jane led the way up the nearby hill, a notebook tucked under her arm. She seemed to know the way well so Thor followed her, careful not to trip over something in the dark. The night flora and fauna were beautiful. There were glowing white flowers, butterflies that shone blue in the night, mushrooms that emitted a lovely yellow light, and brightly colored caterpillars.

They made their way up the hill and then sat there together, looking up at the sky.

Jane had been right. The view from Earth was far more stunning than the view in space. It was jaw-dropping. Thor gazed up at the blanket of stars across the night sky, awestruck, as they twinkled and shone. He was lost in wonder.

Jane nudged him and pointed out a group of stars in the sky.

'That's the Big Dipper. It's part of Ursa Major, the Great Bear. Do you see it? It's like a cup and a long handle. The cup is part of Ursa Major's chest and her legs start from there.'

Thor did see it. It was vague, sure, but he could make it out.

She quickly sketched both constellations in her notebook and wrote down the names.

'And that's the Little Dipper. Ursa Minor. Two stars from the cup. You see that bright star? That's Polaris, the North Star. It's at the end of the handle of the Little Dipper.'

She continued pointing out constellations and writing them down in her book. Thor really didn't know how she did it. If he'd come out here and looked at the stars by himself he wouldn't have spotted any of them.

It was amicable and quite pleasant, if he was being honest. He actually liked sitting with Jane and looking at the stars. It was a nice change from the constant activity of the camp and the tension of everyone around him.

He was looking up at the sky when he saw something blazing its path down the ink-black darkness.

It looked like it was on fire, zooming to the ground, leaving a trail of smoke in the sky.

'Jane, is that what you call a shooting star?' Thor asked, interested, watching the foreign object in the sky.

She looked up from her notebook, took one look at the object and gasped.

'That's not a shooting star, it's a drop ship!'

Jane stood up and began to run down the hill, towards the drop ship. Thor called her back. 

'Jane, wait! We must see where it lands first, and then we shall go and investigate.'

The two of them watched the drop ship's path across the sky. At the last moment, its lander activated and the drop ship floated down to the ground not too far away.

Thor looked at Jane. 'It seems to be around a kilometre away. Do you wish to alert the others or shall we make haste at once and find out what this drop ship is?'

Jane looked towards where the drop ship had landed.

'Do you have a weapon?'

'Yes. I have a spear.'

'And I have a knife. Let's just see what's in the drop ship. It's not too far away, and it's not in Grounder territory. If it's something hostile we run. If it's something that will help us we'll investigate more.'

Thor nodded. 'Lead the way,' he told her, and she set off towards the direction where the drop ship had landed.

It was dark, but the glowing fauna and the stars and moon provided enough light that Thor and Jane could see the forest around them. They tried to be as quiet as possible. Thor remembered a black jaguar they had seen on one of the border patrols and hefted up his spear, holding it more tightly.

They found the drop ship quite easily. It wasn't too far away - around a kilometre or so from the camp, as Thor had pointed out earlier. It was smoking and very small - a space pod, just for one person.

Thor and Jane watched it for a few moments.

When nothing happened, he approached it carefully, spear raised. Jane followed him.

Very delicately, he tried to get the hatch open by using the spear as leverage. Someone had already opened the hatch and it gave way easily.

Exchanging a cautious glance with Jane, Thor peered into the drop ship and gasped.

Strapped in a seat, with blood on her forehead and her eyes closed, was Brunnhilde.

Valkyrie.

* * *

Bruce had been dozing off, in a prolonged state of exhaustion due to his constant care for Clint, when Thor and Jane came running into the camp, shouting to wake everyone up.

Behind them was a pretty girl with dark hair and coffee-colored skin, wearing a full spacesuit, a helmet tucked under her arm. She was stumbling and Thor was half-supporting her. There was blood on her shirt and on her forehead.

Steve was the first to greet them, his blue eyes flicking over the trio.

'Hey,' he greeted, his voice somehow calm and steady even though he'd just woken up, 'what's your name?' 

'Brunnhilde, but you can call me Valkyrie,' the girl replied, her distrustful gaze sweeping the half-awake delinquents who were staggering out of their tents and the drop ship.

'She was in a drop ship. We were stargazing and we saw her pod land,' Jane explained.

Valkyrie looked on the verge of collapse. She was trying to hide it but he could clearly see it. 'Hey, I think she has a concussion,' he interrupted, and everyone turned to look at him. 'Maybe I should treat her first and then when she feels better she can explain why she was in the drop ship.'

'I don't need treatment -' she began indignantly, but then almost fell over.

Steve nodded. 'You should rest. You're bleeding. In the morning we can continue. Everyone, back to sleep,' he ordered, and the delinquents slowly went back to their tents, whispering amongst themselves.

Bruce approached her. 'You can stay in the bunker. It's sort of our medical ward,' he told her. She nodded and Bruce went to collect some bandages and a water bottle. They set off together to the bunker, with Thor hovering anxiously in the background.

'I knew him, Thor. He's the son of Commander Odin, everyone in Asgard knew him,' Valkyrie commented. 

'Oh, so that's why he's acting like a mother duck with her ducklings.'

She snorted. 'Yeah, I guess.'

By the time they made it to the bunker, she was nearly unconscious. Bruce cleaned the blood and bandaged her head wound. He laid a cool wet cloth across her forehead as she settled onto the bed and he also gave her something called Tylenol, which contained acetaminophen, according to the bottle. Thankfully the drop ship hadn't sent them down without basic medicine.

Soon she was asleep and Bruce collapsed on the couch.

The next day, everyone was assembled in the middle of camp, eagerly waiting for Valkyrie. Steve was talking to Bucky, who was flipping a knife in his hand. Clint and Natasha were sitting nearby, both of them focused on Bruce and Valkyrie. Natasha looked uncharacteristically anxious. She kept glancing at Clint, whose expression was unreadable.

Valkyrie smiled at Steve and he smiled back, turning to face her. Bucky stopped flipping the knife.

'Okay, so I'm Valkyrie. I'm from Asgard, but then I managed to get a spot as a mechanic on the Helicarrier. I'm the one who tests spacesuits and goes on routine spacewalks along the side of the Helicarrier. Thing is, they think you're all dead.'

She took a deep breath, looking around her. In the morning when Bruce had woken her she was so awestruck by the scenery, the view, the animals, the plants - everything. The happy light in her eyes reminded Bruce of how much those in space were missing and why they had to try and communicate with them as soon as possible.

'They think you're dead,' she continued, 'because a few days ago all your wristbands stopped communicating with the Helicarrier.'

'Fuck,' Tony swore. 'It must've been the trick I did with the radio. It was using the wristbands for power as well, and when it failed, it must've fried the wristbands as well.'

She nodded. 'They're going to kill three hundred people. Tomorrow. They're running out of oxygen. Even if they kill those three hundred people they will have only a year or so of oxygen left. I wasn't authorized to come down here. My girlfriend caused a distraction and I left in the drop ship so I could see for myself if you were dead or not.'

'Since we're very much alive, how do we tell them that?' Steve asked, tension clearly visible in the way he set his jaw. Everyone was glancing at each other, thinly veiled panic and horror in their eyes. Most of the kids still had families or people they loved on the Helicarrier.

'I had a radio in the drop ship,' Valkyrie told him. 'I planned on communicating with them as soon as I touched the ground. Clearly that didn't work out so well. Thanks, by the way,' she added, to Bruce, who nodded. 'No problem.'

'Well, then, let's go get that radio,' Steve said, looking around at them. 'Who wants to come?'

Bruce volunteered first. He felt like he wasn't doing much at all to help the camp. Sure, he'd helped Clint recover, but that was only because Betty came up with the idea of taking apart the poultice. Thor volunteered, as did Sam and Bucky.

Valkyrie insisted on coming, even though Bruce told her she had a concussion and she needed to rest or it wouldn't heal. She led the way into the forest to where the drop ship had landed.

It was a sad sight - the smoking drop ship on the forest floor, blood still on the seat, and the radio -

'It's gone!' Valkyrie exclaimed angrily.

They peered at the place she was pointing at. Sure enough, on the control board there was a chunk where the radio was supposed to be, torn wires poking out.

'Somebody stole it! Fuck me, I'm so stupid, I should've immediately contacted the Helicarrier -' 

She went off on an angry tangent as everyone else stared in shock and disappointment at the drop ship.

'Wait,' Bucky said suddenly. He pointed to the ground. 'Footprints. Any chance they could belong to our mystery thief?'

'Wanna find out?' Steve asked him, already heading in the direction of the footprints.

The trail led all the way to the river - the same river which apparently wound all throughout the forest. They stopped and stared at the water, which lazily flew in the direction opposite to their camp.

'You don't think he threw it in here?' Sam asked

'Can't hurt to check,' Bucky told him, already wading into the water.

'Even if he or she did, the radio will be full of water. It'll take half a day just to dry it out and another day or so to fix it,' Bruce commented.

Valkyrie gave him a thoughtful glance as everyone began to scour the river, looking for the missing radio.

'I might have an idea,' she said slowly, as they both trudged into the muddy water. 'But first we need to see if we can find that radio.'

They spent around half an hour wandering about the river, diving occasionally when the water got to deep and surfacing with no results.

When they were about to give up, Sam let out a whoop as he paddled to the shallows.

'I found it!' he yelled, holding up the black box.

It was very wet. Water was practically pouring from it. The wires stuck out, looking like they'd been hastily sawn off by a knife.

'Fuck,' Steve swore, taking it from Sam. 'This will take at least two days to fix.'

Another dead end.

Everyone stood around her, silent, all of them dripping water with their hair plastered to their faces. Bucky's chin-length hair was especially wet and he growled at Sam who had been snickering at him.

'Thing is, we don't need to actually communicate with them,' Valkyrie stated, taking her radio back. She smiled at all of them.

'We just need to tell them we're alive.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow, i got this chapter done early. woo. yay for me, i guess. anyways, introducing another one of my queens (apart from nat, she's the ultimate queen, as we all know): valkyrie! yas, finally. also: varol! varol is happening, guys :)
> 
> k, new chapter, hope you enjoy, you know this drill, so lots of love,
> 
> ╰⊱♥⊱╮ღ꧁ $ÂĈRЄÐØßĿĪVĪØИ ꧂ღ╭⊱♥≺


	10. love you, hate you, hate that i love you

Steve was setting up a launcher for a rocket flare when Tony sauntered up to him.

Valkyrie had told them that the radio would take at least two days to fix, minimum, with Tony helping her. She said that instead of using a radio, they would make rocket flares, which the Helicarrier could see from space. They'd completely stripped down her pod to get materials for the launchers.

'Hey, gorgeous. Nice to see you're as sexy as always.'

Tony's smooth, flirtatious voice was back. Steve swore that he wouldn't let it affect him. He took a moment to compose himself and turned around to face Tony, arching an eyebrow, keeping his expression deadpan.

'Thanks, I woke up like this.'

Tony's eyebrows rose so high they touched his hairline, and then he began laughing.

'Wow, you're full of surprises today, Rogers. Don't act so cocky, that's my thing.'

'Just like being a mechanic was?' He nodded to Valkyrie's direction.

Tony snorted. 'Aren't you a smartass. Everyone's copying my style and I hate it.'

Steve rolled his eyes and turned back to the launcher. It wasn't too difficult to set up, because Valkyrie had given him step-by-step instructions, but Steve knew that he was going to go wrong somewhere. Anything involving machinery or technology was far from his strong point.

'What do you want?' he asked Tony.

'To see you.'

'Okay, you have. Now what?'

'Hold your horses, handsome. I also realized that - no offence - you suck at this. I came over to help.'

'Yes. Your staring at my ass is incredibly beneficial to me,' Steve deadpanned.

'Are you saying my staring is distracting you?'

'I'm saying it's of no use to me.'

'Other than making you blush.'

'Do I resemble a tomato in any way?'

'You did last time.'

'That was last time.'

'Damn. I really need to work on my game, it's slipping.'

'What a tragedy.'

'Hilarious. There's so much salt here I might get cardiac arrest just by looking at it.'

'You did say it was gorgeous, though,' Steve reminded him, and he grinned.

'Okay, Rogers, nice play. Glad to see you don't trip over your own feet anymore. Move aside, you're doing that wrong.'

Steve shuffled to his right so Tony could work on whatever he'd been doing wrong. He found himself gazing at the other boy's wicked dark eyes, long eyelashes, tousled hair and lean frame. Tony wasn't thin or soft by any means. He looked slim and short in stature but he had ripcord muscles from all the engineering stuff, probably.

Thankfully Tony didn't catch him staring. He was engrossed in assembling the launcher, the smug smirk gone, replaced by a look of intense concentration. His face was quite pretty when he wasn't wearing his arrogant mask. It showed a softness, a kind of openness that he'd never seen before, and Steve couldn't take his eyes off him.

'See something you like?'

Steve started. Tony was glancing at him from the corner of those chocolate-brown eyes, a small smile tugging at his lips. So he did notice Steve's ogling, apparently. Steve didn't say anything back. He didn't trust himself to.

'Really, Rogers, I thought we were past that stage. We both know you think I'm sexy.' Tony went back to tugging at the spring contraption which helped the launcher take off.

'Oh, yeah? Didn't know that. Would've, if we'd talked more, but...' Steve trailed off, keeping his eyes on Tony, trying to gauge the young billionaire's reaction.

Tony sighed and stepped back from the launcher. 'What did you want to talk about, Steve? We kissed, yeah. It was nice, yeah. What else do you want me to say?'

Steve groaned in frustration. 'What are we, Tony? A one-time thing? A fling? An actual relationship? I really don't know, and it's stressing me the fuck out -'

He was interrupted when Tony leaned forward and kissed him on the lips.

It was a chaste kiss, nothing like the make-out they'd done the first time, and Tony broke away, leaving Steve flushed and tongue-tied.

'Does that answer your question?' he asked, raising an eyebrow. 'I don't think we were a one-time thing.'

Steve shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. 'Tony, I like you. I like you a lot. And there definitely was sparks. But I'm not too sure about the whole boyfriend thing. I don't really do dating, and -'

'You don't want to take it too fast,' Tony finished, looking disappointed. 

'Yeah - I mean, I'm sorry, I really am, but I just can't do relationships.'

'Why not? Are you afraid of having me as your boyfriend? Worried everyone's gonna talk that the great Steve Rogers is dating fuckboy billionaire Tony Stark?' Tony's voice was both hurt and pleading.

'No, it isn't that -' Steve said desperately, but Tony was already turning away, his haughty mask back in place.

'Don't bother. It's fine, Rogers. I don't really care.'

Steve was left blinking after Tony's retreating back, wondering if he'd just made the biggest mistake of his life.

'Woah, what happened there?' Sam asked, appearing out of nowhere next to Steve.

'Nothing.' Steve sighed as Sam arched an eyebrow in disbelief. Sam was a good guy, and was incredible at giving advice and helping people work on their issues. He'd told Steve that in the Helicarrier he had been studying for a career in therapy. Steve decided he could talk to Sam.

'Well, Tony and I kissed. We kissed, and I liked it, and he did, too. And I'm not sure, but I think he indirectly asked me to be his boyfriend? And I want to, Sam, but I'm too scared.' Steve let out a sharp exhale. 'I really like him. I don't think I could deal with it if he ever broke up with me.'

Sam nodded. 'So you want a relationship, but you're afraid of it ending. Have you told him this, or...?'

'He walked away before I could.'

'Don't stress about it. If he really was as interested in you as you are in him, he won't be able to stay away. Think about it for a while. If you truly believe he's the one for you, then go for it. Talk to him, tell him your actual feelings, tell him you're scared of rejection. Give him some space for now and just mull it over - is he really worth a heartbreak?'

Steve paused. 'You're right. Yeah. Yeah, you're right, I'll do that. Thanks a lot, Sam.'

'No problem, man. They're setting up the flares now, they're almost done, Valkyrie says we should light it up now or else we may be too late.'

Steve nodded and stepped away from the launcher. He didn't trust himself to light the flare, partly because he was inexperienced and partly because he was so distracted by his thoughts that he didn't think he could do anything properly. He let Gamora take his place.

He stood with Sam a little way back as Valkyrie counted down from three and the delinquents crouched by the launchers, ready to release the flares. Three, two, one, and...

It was beautiful. The flares shot up into the sky, blazing trails of red, strongly burning their way high up into the ink-black darkness.

'Again!'

Another round of flares were released.

'Last time!'

The final round of flares from the six launchers they'd assembled took the place of the first ones, that had already sputtered out.

'You think they can see it?' Bucky asked him, back from a hunting party, judging by his sweaty disheveled look.

'I hope they can,' Steve replied, eyebrows creasing.

Bucky looked at him. 'Hey, punk. You okay?' he questioned, concern in his voice.

'Yeah. 'M fine.'

'Don't bullshit me, Stevie.'

'Well... I think I'm fine, anyway.'

'What happened? Was it Stark?'

'Yeah? Kind of. I think it was more of my fault, really.'

'Okay, so tell me how you fucked up today.' Bucky turned to face him, blue eyes serious.

'He asked me to be his boyfriend. Indirectly, but the message was there. And I said no.'

'What? Why? I thought you liked him. I know you like him, even though he's a jackass, but no accounting for your taste, because you like wearing flannel and that is disgusting -'

'Haha. If we're done insulting my fashion choice, I would like to say that yeah, I like him, but I'm not ready for a relationship.' He sighed. 'I'm scared, Buck. What if he got tired of me and broke it off? I don't know how I'll deal with that.'

'If he does I'll break his nose,' Bucky said firmly, grabbing Steve by the shoulders. 'Listen up, punk. You're amazing. You're kind, sweet, caring - everything somebody could want in a boyfriend. Go for it. Tell him you've reconsidered. And if he does give you up - then he didn't deserve you in the first place, and I'll kick his ass.'

'Thanks, Buck,' Steve said sincerely, but then as an afterthought he added, 'Don't break his nose, though.'

'Aw, come on! Just one punch. It'll fix itself anyway.'

'Bucky, _no,'_ Steve said, but he was laughing. Bucky grinned and lightly shoved him in the shoulder.

'Also, speaking of relationships, what's your status with Nat?' Steve asked, glancing at the redhead.

Bucky shrugged. 'No idea. I was lying earlier. We never sorted things out. We kissed and that was it, I guess. Don't worry, I'll figure it out.'

'Yeah, right. I bet in a few days you'll come crying to me saying you love her and all that shit -'

Steve was interrupted by a cry of surprise. He turned to the source of the noise and Peter Parker was staring up at the sky.

'What's that?'

Steve craned his neck to look at what Peter was gazing at.

The night was lit up by little lights. He wasn't sure what they were. They looked like objects someone threw from space, and they were burning up in Earth's atmosphere. As they came closer to the ground, they blinked out, as if they were scorched to ashes.

'Those were the bodies of three hundred people,' Valkyrie said soberly, and everyone turned to look at her, a hush falling across the camp. 'The flares didn't work. That, or we were too late. They did it. They opened the chamber. Three hundred people were just thrown into space.'

There were muted gasps, cries of shock and people clapping their hands to their mouths in horror. Some of them looked on the verge of tears. Steve was sickened. He felt nauseous. Just because someone had torn out a radio three hundred people were killed.

He turned to Bucky, whose face reflected Steve's thoughts.

'They did it, they really did,' Steve whispered, and he nodded. 'Never doubted them,' he said bitterly, and Steve was shocked by the acid in his best friend's voice.

He turned around to look for Tony, scanning the camp. He knew for a fact that all the delinquents had returned - he'd specifically ordered it.

Tony was nowhere to be seen.

'Hey, have you seen Tony?' he asked Scott, who was passing by.

'Yeah. He went into the woods earlier. Thought you'd asked him to, didn't check it out,' he said nonchalantly.

Steve looked anxiously towards the forest.

He hated being in love.

Especially being in love with Tony Stark.

* * *

Tony groaned and tried to lift his head.

Wherever he was, it wasn't pleasant. Blood and dirt stuck to his face, he could barely breathe, and every movement made him wheeze.

This was bad. Really bad.

Tony's chest hurt. He hoped his arc reactor was undamaged. He hadn't told anyone about the arc reactor. He didn't feel the need to. Even the media didn't know, and the media knew literally everything else about his life. His arc reactor was a closely guarded secret. Howard Stark clearly didn't want his son to be viewed as weak, or as a sickly cripple.

Great parenting on his father's part.

Tony had run off into the forest. Yeah, bad idea, but he wasn't thinking right. After Steve had literally rejected him, he wasn't thinking straight at all. He was so angry - at himself for naively believing, at Steve for not sharing his feelings, at his father for being the root cause for all his problems - at the world in general, really.

He didn't want to see the flares. He just wanted to get away from Steve.

And, being the athletic superstar he was, he promptly tripped over a tree root, rolled down a hill, hit his head on a rock and then blacked out.

All of which was bad.

But he didn't remember getting tied up. He didn't remember getting gagged, and he definitely didn't remember passing out in a cave.

Which either meant he was hallucinating, dead or kidnapped.

All of which were worse.

The ground felt very real. So did the rope around his ankles and wrists, and the rag stuffed in his mouth. So he wasn't hallucinating. His head was throbbing painfully and he was pretty sure there was a cut along his left leg, which was bleeding out as he lay there. So, not dead, either.

Pity.

He would take being dead over being kidnapped by murderous secret organizations any day.

Tony lifted his head off the ground, trying to gauge where he was. The cave was quite small. Was it even a cave? It looked more like an underground room - with dirt for the walls and floor. There was nothing in it except for, well, him. He saw a door - wonder of wonders - but he would bet his sunglasses that it was locked.

Tony spat out the gag. Whoever put it in had done a terrible job. He was about to try and get rid of his bonds as well when the door opened and someone walked in.

He looked up and nearly had a heart attack.

'Lackey?'

'Shut up. It's Loki.'

Thor's younger brother was standing there, his shoulder-length black hair swept back, his sharp cheekbones protruding even more than when Tony had seen him last - but he was unscathed. He was unscathed and he was wearing a black suit with the red skull and tentacles symbol described by Barnes and Romanoff.

'What are you doing here?'

'I said shut up.'

'Really, what are you doing here? You're working with - them? Whoever they are? Lackey, did you kill Pietro on their orders -'

'Stark, I told you to _shut up!_ And it's _Loki._ You'd better remember that.'

Loki crossed the room in two strides, his eyes burning, and Tony actually found himself scared of the fourteen-year-old. There was a haunted look there which made him automatically shrink away.

Loki picked up the rag with two fingers, looking disgusted, and then shoved it back into Tony's mouth. Again, sloppily, and Tony could easily spit it out in a second, but Tony wasn't going to tell him that. The boy threw him one last vindictive look and then stormed out of the door.

Tony ignored the millions of questions he had in his head and spat out the gag. He needed to get out of there, and fast. He rolled over to the wall, where he could see sharp edges of rocks poking out, and scrubbed the rope around his wrists against the rocks, hoping to at least weaken it.

Sure enough, the fibers of the rope began to fall apart and he easily snapped it. His head still hurt like a bitch and so did the cut on his leg, but at least he could move around now.

Once his hands were free, he got rid of the rope around his ankles, stood up and went over to the door.

It was locked.

He could keep his sunglasses.

Tony didn't know how to pick a lock. He never learned. Even if he did know how to, there was nothing in the room that could be used to pick a lock. In movies, everyone used hairpins, but Tony wasn't a girl and he didn't have long hair like Barnes or Loki. He also didn't need to be told that movies were far from real life.

Okay. Alternative escape plan.

_You can do this, Stark._

He walked around the room. Hopefully Loki wouldn't come back and see him free from his bonds. Or maybe he should. Then Tony could take his revenge. Being gagged and tied up by a fourteen-year-old was utterly humiliating and he couldn't wait to get out of there and never think about it again.

He stopped by one of the walls. Near the ceiling, there was a gap - a very small one, but a gap nonetheless - and he could see the night sky. The gap, however, was barely big enough to put his hand through.

He scrabbled at the dirt around the gap. As he'd expected, it was very loose and came away easily. There were rocks as well, and he pulled them out, praying that the ceiling wouldn't collapse on him. It hurt like a bitch, partly because of his insane headache and partly because widening a hole wasn't the most easiest thing he'd ever done. 

But soon the hole was a considerable size and he climbed up and pushed himself through it. There really was no elegant way to achieve that. If anyone walked through that door they would see his ass and his legs kicking in the air like there was no tomorrow.

He managed to crawl out of the hole, using his elbows to pull him up. Just as he stood up and brushed off the dirt, pleasantly surprised to find himself out in the open again, there was a shocked exclamation and he whirled around. Loki had clearly come back.

Tony didn't wait to see his reaction. He turned and sprinted, and he wasn't ashamed in the least for running away.

He was so distracted he ran right into someone.

A familiar, muscular someone.

 _'Tony?'_ Steve gaped. Behind him were Thor, Bucky and Rhodey.

'Missed me?' He struck a pose and gave them his signature smirk.

Rhodey pushed past Steve and pulled him into a hug. 'You idiot, don't do that to me again!' Rhodey said angrily, and Tony relaxed in his best friend's arms, melting in the hug so quickly he was embarrassed. 

'Aw, platypus, you _did_ miss me!'

'I'm serious, Tones! I was scared shitless!'

'I'm sorry, I really am,' Tony said sincerely, breaking away. He'd never meant for Rhodey to get so anxious about him.

'Yeah, tell that to Pep. She's about ready to tear you to pieces. The only reason she didn't leave camp is because if she did leave for even a minute it would all go to hell over there.'

'Fuck. Well, I can't wait for that and all, but guys, I was kidnapped, okay? I was kidnapped, and guess by whom? Your brother, Thor. Lackey. Loki. Whatever. I think the kid's working for those weirdass people in the woods who want to kill us all.'

'What?' Thor looked befuddled.

'Yeah, I'm being serious - _fuck!'_

He was shoved to the ground by none other than Steve, whose blue eyes were panicked.

Everyone froze and looked at Steve, who looked down.

In his stomach was a knife.

Tony turned his head.

Standing there was Loki, his hand outstretched, seeming to just realize that Tony wasn't alone.

Tony stared at him with wide open eyes as Steve collapsed to the ground. The angle at which Loki was standing - he would have hit Tony in the back, directly in the chest, ruined the arc reactor - and Tony would've been dead in minutes.

Steve had just saved his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> woah, i wrote this chapter so fast i'm pretty sure there must be around a hundred mistakes in both grammar and spelling, and i'm too lazy to edit. oof. if there's anything wrong please tell me, i guess. also - steve's a certified self-sacrificial dumbass. but he's also a cinnamon roll, so i can't be mad at him, but still! ugh. i don't know why i do this to myself.
> 
> aight. new chapter, y'alls, hope you enjoyed, here's a hug (づ￣ ³￣)づ 
> 
> stay safe please, and lots of love,
> 
> ╰⊱♥⊱╮ღ꧁ $ÂĈRЄÐØßĿĪVĪØИ ꧂ღ╭⊱♥≺


	11. everything's going to be alright

Natasha gave Loki a cold look before glancing back at her companions.

They were standing in the top floor of the drop ship. Thor, with his miserable yet resigned gaze, Tony, with his determined stare, James, with his set jaw and furious expression, and herself. Loki was tied up and in the middle of the area.

'What do you suggest we should do?'

'Do you really want to know what I think?' James asked coldly, his right hand holding a knife, his metal hand clenched into a fist.

'No violence yet. At least for Thor's sake,' she told him, glancing at Thor, who hadn't spoken a word since they'd captured Loki.

'Really? Steve's down there, half-dead because this rat's knife was fucking poisoned and he won't tell us which one of the bottles in his little bag is the damn antidote and you're saying no violence?' James spat, turning on her, his icy eyes full of rage, and she met his stare evenly.

'Beating him up is going to achieve nothing, and neither is electrocuting him, so stay away from those wires, Stark -'

'We've been trying to intimidate him by talking for almost half an hour,' snarled Tony, who was standing by the fried controls. 'If we're gonna keep babying him then Steve's gonna die.'

James arched an eyebrow at Tony, clearly surprised at the sudden change of heart in Tony Stark, fuckboy extraordinaire.

'Exactly,' he said, turning to Natasha again, this time confident in the fact that he had a supporter.

Natasha narrowed her eyes at both of them, and then turned to Thor, who still hadn't said a word. He was staring right at Loki, who was deliberately avoiding his gaze. It hadn't been difficult to capture Loki, according to James. The poisoned knife had been his only weapon and it had gone directly into Steve.

She usually wouldn't give a shit if someone's little brother was important to them - she was an assassin, after all - but something stirred in her when she saw Thor's downcast face. 

Maybe it was the fact that her recent emotional breakdown over Clint had opened up old wounds and reminded her of her sister. Maybe it was the fact that she'd started killing long before Loki and something about him reminded her of herself - a broken, haunted child.

Either way, she wasn't going to break Thor's heart by forcing him to watch his brother in pain.

She turned to the two others, who were still glaring at her, and she set her jaw, a steely glint in her eyes.

'I know Steve is important to both of you, but Loki's fourteen. You can't be suggesting torture. All three of you, leave the room.'

They began to protest angrily, but she interrupted.

'Leave the room. I'm being serious. Get the fuck out and go and help Steve. I promise I'll get the antidote.'

They trooped out, James and Tony still staring at her wrathfully, but Thor gave her a weak smile, which she returned with a nod.

'Confident, are you?' 

She turned back to Loki. 'Those are the first words you've spoken since you've been in here,' she replied coolly, avoiding his question.

He shrugged. 'At least I'm not surrounded by thick-headed twats.'

'How are you so sure I'm not one myself?'

A small smile tugged at his lips, even in his dirty, disheveled, bloody state. 'I know you, Natalia Romanova. You may try to hide your past from them but I know all about you. I even wanted to be in the Wolf Spider program, but it failed, much to my vexation.'

She arched an eyebrow, being very careful not to let any of her conflicting emotions show. 'Oh, really, Laufeyson? Did you forget that I know all about you as well? You're Odin's adopted son. It was mandatory for us to learn all about the Commanders and their families.'

A slow smile spread across her face as his expression paled, and then returned to stoic.

'I don't care.'

'I don't think so. What would your brother say, Laufeyson, if he knew what you were up to aboard the Helicarrier?'

Loki didn't reply.

She smirked. 'If you tell me which one is the antidote, I won't go around spilling all your secrets.'

'Do you think I care if you tell that oaf what I did?' Loki snapped, and then his voice got smoother. 'You can go ahead and tell him. I'm sure it won't affect me as much as it would affect you if I blabbed your secrets to all your little friends.'

Natasha's expression didn't change. Her eyebrow raised, just a tiny bit.

'Oh, you'd care very much, I think,' Loki continued, 'especially if I told that Barnes boy. Don't think I didn't notice the way you looked at him. It's adorable, but it won't last for very long, will it?'

'That won't matter at all, seeing as they already know,' Natasha replied, just as smoothly, lying through her teeth - but he didn't need to know that.

Loki smirked. 'You're a liar, Romanova.'

'Do you really believe that? Do you think I would risk a relationship by keeping secrets? Don't think you know everything about me, Laufeyson. James knows, and so does Clint, in case you were wondering, and Steve and the rest will know soon as well.'

Her lie was partially based on the truth. She had told Clint a bit about what she did in Mir, but she still hadn't told him about the whole I-almost-killed-you-and-your-boss thing. And she'd spoken with James about her life as a child, even though she completely avoided bringing up the name of the Red Room.

Loki must have sensed her cool, unbothered demeanor, because he looked rather uncertain.

'It doesn't matter, Romanova. You still won't have that antidote.'

'Are you so sure about that as well? Loki, I'm an assassin. I was trained in poisons. I saw that blade. I know exactly what's in it. If I wanted I could just kill you, walk out there, get the ingredients and make the antidote myself.'

All bullshit.

Loki rolled his eyes. 'Don't lie. Doesn't look good on you.'

'Oh, really? Because that poison was made up of water hemlock, belladonna, monkshood and a little bit of secretion from a poison dart frog. Nice touch.'

She smiled again, watching him squirm. All of that had been a mixture of guesswork and her own training, as she'd been observing Steve's symptoms and then pulled the answer out of her ass. 

His eyes darted to one of the bottles she'd purposefully laid out on her right and her smile grew wider. In his bag she'd found four bottles. Two she ruled out as poison. The other two were antidotes but she knew if she gave the wrong one to Steve, he would die. Thankfully, Loki had just secured Steve's life.

Jackpot.

'Then why are you even here?' he asked her, oblivious of the fact that he'd just given himself away.

'For fun. I like breaking down people, bit by bit. Really pumps up my self-esteem,' she replied smugly, walked past him, picked up the bottle she'd seen him eyeing, and then sashayed her way out of the top floor of the drop ship.

'Fuck you,' he replied angrily.

'You messed up, Laufeyson,' she told him simply, just as she shut the hatch.

As soon as she was out of his sight she inhaled sharply with relief. She didn't know that was going to work. Sure, she'd identified the poison, but she hadn't known what species of poison dart frog was alive on the planet. She also didn't know if the other plants had any sort of mutation. But, Loki was an idiot, so here she was.

She walked out of the drop ship, where Tony and James were pacing back and forth like caged tigers. Thor was sitting with his back against the side of the drop ship, his eyes closed.

James looked up as she walked out. She was wearing her poker face, and she knew it was impeccable. Not one of them would be able to make out what she was thinking just about then.

'Did you...' he said uncertainly, trailing off, stopping in front of her.

Tony paused his pacing as well, and Thor opened his eyes.

She smirked and pulled out the bottle.

James' jaw dropped. 'You did it! You actually did it, what the fuck?'

'Never doubted you, Red!' Tony cried out happily, and Thor beamed.

'You'd better go speak to your brother,' she told him, as she followed Tony and James. 'He's hurt, too.'

Thor nodded at her and went into the drop ship.

She turned and began sprinting to catch up with her two companions.

Steve was in the makeshift medical bay - the bunker with the bed. He had worsened greatly. He was spasming and twitching convulsively, covered in sweat, and he looked nauseous. Bruce was by his side, anxiously pressing cool cloths to his forehead, holding a cup of water.

Natasha gave the antidote to Bruce, who quickly tipped some into another cup just in case they needed to make more, and administered the rest to Steve. Everyone stood by, watching anxiously. Clint was there, and so were Sam, Scott, Wanda, and a blond girl Natasha knew as Sharon Carter.

Steve slowly stopped twitching and shaking. His gasping became normal breathing and his eyes fluttered close.

'He'll be fine,' Bruce said finally, and she swore that Tony almost cried.

'Give him some space, everyone,' she said, 'the antidote needs some time to work, and if you keep interrupting nothing's going to happen.'

Everyone trooped out, except for Clint, who had to stay in the bunker - doctor's orders. She hung out with him for a bit, waiting for everyone to leave, and then she climbed out.

They were all gone except for James.

He was waiting there, his blue irises focused on the ground. When she closed the hatch with a thud he looked up.

'Hey.'

She nodded back at him and turned to leave, but he caught her wrist.

'No, wait, please,' he pleaded, and she stopped, arching an eyebrow at him.

He took a deep breath. 'I just wanted to say that I'm sorry. For snapping at you in the drop ship, and for the whole thing with Loki - I was just really angry. Steve was hurt, Loki wasn't doing anything to help him, and we were wasting our time while he was dying, and I just couldn't deal with it anymore.'

He looked on the verge of a breakdown and she turned to fully face him, concerned.

'Steve - Steve was my only friend from childhood, for _so long._ He's like my brother. If he - if anything happened to him, I don't know what I'd do. Back in the drop ship, I really thought it was the end for him, and I couldn't bear it, I really couldn't -'

'Hey, hey, it's alright,' she whispered to him, and pulled him into a hug, wrapping her arms around his neck. He buried his face in her shoulder, his arms automatically going up to encircle her waist.

'Thank you so much. For everything,' he said, lifting his head from her shirt.

For a moment they just looked into each other's eyes, and then she kissed him without thinking.

She was kissing him, he was kissing her back with just as much intensity, and everything was alright in the world again.

* * *

Clint hated being stabbed.

Wow. What a shocker.

Moving past his outrageous declaration, he especially hated the recovery period. He couldn't run around, shoot arrows, go crazy - all the things he was known for. At least he could still crack lame jokes, although he wasn't sure the others appreciated that skill very much.

The bright side was that he wasn't the only one who was confined to the medical bay. A quiet Steve and a disgruntled Valkyrie were his constant companions, Steve there because he, too, got stabbed, and Valkyrie there because of the concussion she'd gotten when she crash-landed.

Bruce and Betty didn't count. Clint was grateful for them, obviously, but they could still go out in the open without having at least three people scream, another six berate them incessantly, and around nine pick them up and physically carry them back to the bunker.

At least there was a constant stream of visitors. Bucky was there almost all the time, hanging out with Steve, and he didn't mind sitting in the bunker because Natasha was there almost all the time too, chilling out with Clint. Thor came to visit Valkyrie every now and then, and so did Jane, once she understood that Valkyrie was a proud lesbian and didn't want to steal Thor from her.

And Darcy. Darcy was there too, not as often as Natasha. Actually, now that Clint thought about it, Darcy usually visited when Natasha was out hunting or on border patrol. Clint had already explained to her that Natasha was only a friend, and their relationship was platonic - but then Darcy was too.

A friend with benefits, but still just a friend.

Clint didn't know whether or not he wanted to get involved in a serious relationship. He liked the way they were now - joking around, kissing, and occasionally having sex, because that was the whole point of friends with benefits. He didn't want to get in a relationship, break up and then awkwardly avoid her.

He glanced at Natasha, who seemed exceptionally quiet. Not surprising, considering her personality, but he was still concerned.

After they'd given Steve the antidote, they'd turned their full attention to fixing the radio so they could contact the Helicarrier. Since Valkyrie was in the medical bay, Tony was the only one working on it. Occasionally Valkyrie would be allowed to go out and supervise the treatment of her radio, but she needed to take rest or her concussion would worsen.

Some part of their energy had been devoted to talking to Loki, trying to get information from him. This job was mainly Thor and Natasha's. Thor because Loki was his brother, and Natasha because she was the best interrogator in the camp.

So far all they'd gotten from him was that there was a hurricane incoming, and the Grounders were preparing for it, so the delinquents started battening down the hatches as well.

They'd lost four more delinquents to the Grounders. One was speared, two were caught in a spike trap and the last one had his throat slit and was dumped in front of the camp. It was maddening and appalling. They'd also caught sight of the Grounders a lot more. They seemed to have their territory in the jungle separating the delinquents from Mount Weather, which was just perfect.

'What's up with you, anyway?' Clint asked her, an arm carelessly flung over the armrest of the couch, his legs stretched out, as comfortable as possible. He took another piece of meat from the plate in between them.

She was the exact opposite - sitting stiff and straight, her legs folded under her, Indian-style, both hands in her lap. 

'What do you mean?' she asked him, taking a piece of meat herself.

'Well, you're being really silent today. Not like you're very loquacious on a daily basis - by your standards you're quiet, I mean.'

She paused, chewing slowly. 'Um... I don't know. I, uh - I guess I'm in shock?'

He raised an eyebrow. 'Natasha Romanoff both stuttering and in shock? I'm at a loss for words.'

'Shut up. I was talking to James -'

'Ooh,' Clint said immediately, sitting up, his eyes shining. 'Spill. Now. Did you and -' he coughed, '- _James_ kiss? Fuck? Elope? Am I an uncle now?'

She gave him a look so scornful it would have put Stark and his holier-than-thou attitude to shame.

'Why would you assume you would be an uncle to my child?'

'Because I'm awesome! The best! Crazy Uncle Clint gave the kid an arrow again!'

'All you're doing is proving you shouldn't be let around children.'

'Yeah, you're just jealous that your kid will love me more than you,' he told her, and she snorted.

She was quiet for a few minutes before finally saying, 'James and I kissed again.'

 _'Fuck,_ yes! I called it!'

'And, um, we're dating now, I guess.'

'I'm sorry, _what?'_

Clint nearly choked on the piece of meat he'd just eaten. He spluttered for a few moments while Natasha watched unperturbed and, when he finally swallowed, he stared at her in shock.

'You. Natasha Romanoff. Him. Bucky Barnes. Dating.'

'Yes.'

 _'Dating_ dating. Boyfriend-girlfriend kind of dating.'

'Yes.'

 _'Actually_ dating -'

'I will stab you.'

'Oh, _God,_ no,' Clint shuddered, moving away from Natasha, who rolled her eyes.

'You're an idiot,' she said conversationally.

'That I am,' he said cheerfully. 'So. How's it like, dating?'

'Nice. I suppose. Not much difference from the weird whatever you and Darcy have going on. We're just official. You're... in between. Getting there.'

'How do you know about me and Darcy?'

'Do I have eyes?'

'Am I seriously that obvious?'

'You two eye-fuck each other all the time, it's sickening. Anyone with half a brain knows you're hopelessly in love,' she stated matter-of-factly, giving him a sly smile. 'Maybe try less ogling and more being involved in conversations?'

'Damn, okay,' he muttered, mentally making a note to stop staring at Darcy whenever she was in a room with him.

Suddenly there was a loud whoop and both Clint and Natasha turned to the source of the noise.

Tony was climbing down the ladder, his hair sticking up in eight different directions, soot on his face and his hands dirty, but he was smiling as wide as the Cheshire Cat.

'Guess what, bitches?' he announced to the room at large, and whoever was in the bunker - Bruce, Steve, Clint and Natasha - all looked at him.

Behind him was Valkyrie, looking exhausted but extremely happy as well.

'The radio's working! And he connected the screen from your drop ship so that's working as well! We're gonna talk to the Helicarrier, they're gonna come down!'

Immediately Clint hopped off the couch and ran to both of them, throwing his arms around them, cheering, much to Bruce's displeasure ('Clint, you're going to reopen that damn wound!')

Laughing, Steve followed and hugged Valkyrie, and then awkwardly hugged Tony as well. The corner of Natasha's mouth quirked up and Clint pulled her into the chaotic group hug.

Everything was going to be alright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yo, new chapter. sorry it's so late, i've been really busy and just realized i hadn't posted a chapter like an hour and a half back. this is literally the fastest i've written, lmao.
> 
> anyways, don't die please, remember to drink water and lots of love,
> 
> ╰⊱♥⊱╮ღ꧁ $ÂĈRЄÐØßĿĪVĪØИ ꧂ღ╭⊱♥≺


	12. who we need to be to survive

Thor watched Loki out of the corner of his eye.

His younger brother was still tied up, his dark hair unkempt, blood and dirt still on his cheeks and hands, deliberately ignoring Thor. Thor had tried to clean his wounds for him - they were just scratches and a bruise on his jaw where Bucky had hit him, but Thor was still worried. However, Loki adamantly refused to let Thor come anywhere near him.

Thor sighed. 'Do you want water?'

'No.'

'Food?'

'No.'

'You must be hungry, you didn't eat -'

'No.'

'Do you at least want to talk to Father? Or Hela?'

Loki gave him such a scornful look that he held up both hands in surrender.

They fell back into the uncomfortable silence that they had been in for the past half an hour.

'Loki, Father would wish to see you. It has been almost two and a half years,' Thor tried again. 'Hela, too. She missed you a lot more than she missed me. I think she finds you more tolerable than me, possibly due to the fact you are more alike.'

Loki gave a short laugh, but there was no humor in it. 'You really don't get it, do you, brother? They hate me. The only person who ever loved me for who I am was Mother, and she's dead. Father wishes he never took me in, and Hela? I don't even think she knows I exist,' he said bitterly.

'Loki, there's people who still care about you,' Thor told him intensely. 'I do. I do, Loki. I love you too, brother.'

Loki didn't reply, but he met Thor's gaze, and there was so much anguish in his eyes that Thor died inside.

'I know,' he said softly.

Thor stood up. He didn't think he could bear sitting in the same room with his brother anymore. He headed towards the hatch, eyes downcast. Loki didn't say anything else. Thor hefted the hatch open and placed his foot on the first rung of the ladder when Loki called out to him.

'Wait!'

Thor froze.

'I didn't kill him!'

'What?'

'Pietro. I didn't kill him, I swear, I'm not a murderer!'

'Loki, what are you saying?' The hatch fell back with a thud as Thor approached him, his eyes panicked and pleading.

'You have to believe me -'

'Loki, calm down. Start from the beginning. I believe you, okay?' Thor knelt so his gaze could be on level with his little brother's.

'Pietro - he was suspicious. Of me. He was following me everywhere. After the acid fog was over I went to meet with one of the Grounders and he saw me. The Grounder took the knife I stole from Rumlow and he stabbed him, and then he told me to take credit or else I would die, too.'

Thor placed both his hands on his brother's shoulders. 'I believe you, okay? I believe you. Do you want to tell this to everyone else, too?'

Loki nodded. 'I'm sorry, brother,' he said softly, and Thor smiled a sad smile. 

'It's alright. I forgive you.'

Fifteen minutes later, all of Thor's friends were gathered in the drop ship. Steve had been allowed to come up because it was important. Bucky, Natasha, Wanda, Bruce, Tony, T'Challa, Valkyrie and some others were standing in a circle around Loki, who had finally allowed Thor to clean his wounds.

'So... you were working with them to save your life... and they killed Pietro but you took credit?' Steve said slowly, and Loki nodded.

'Alright. Can you tell us anything about them?'

'I don't really know much. I was an outsider. They call themselves HYDRA. I think they came down to Earth around twenty years ago. They're working to take down SHIELD and the other nations in space. They used to live in the Helicarrier, but stole a drop ship and came here. There's still agents in space, though.'

Loki seemed to be getting into his stride. 

'They were expecting you guys. I'm sure there's an infiltrator in your Council. I've never seen their leader, he must be in space. They want to get rid of you. They were scaring you off at first, but then you got too meddlesome, and now they're planning an attack on you.'

He looked around at all of them.

'That hurricane I told you about? They're going to wait for it to pass, and then they're going to launch an attack. You need to be prepared. They have guns, bombs, ammunition - they're stocked. Only thing is, they're running low on supplies. They don't mention it but I saw it. They didn't prepare very well when they came down, and even though they raided Mount Weather, it wasn't enough.'

Thor looked around at his friends. Steve was frowning, lost in thought. T'Challa looked calm and collected. Tony was trying to maintain his cool demeanor but he looked concerned. Bucky was furrowing his eyebrows as well and Natasha was as unreadable and stoic as always. Bruce, Wanda and the others were all wide-eyed and open-mouthed.

Finally, Steve said, 'Thank you, Loki.' He said it sincerely, and Loki gave him a tentative smile.

'Alright, everyone, we need to get ready. First of all, we should talk to the Chancellor, ask him what we should do to prepare for the winter and for the hurricane. Tell Wade and Okoye to continue making weapons -'

'Wait,' interrupted Bucky. He arched an eyebrow at Steve. 'He stabbed you with a poisoned knife and you're going to let him get away with it?'

Loki looked uncomfortable and Thor was about to step in for his brother when Steve said calmly, 'What's done is done, Buck. Not much harm was done. I'm okay now, aren't I?'

'Still,' Tony butted in, narrowing his eyes at Loki. 'It wouldn't be fair if he got off without any punishment at all. You know what I say? I think he should go back to HYDRA. As a double agent. Feed 'em false information, get all the good stuff for us. You know?'

'Absolutely not,' Thor said angrily, and Tony sighed, turning to face him. 'You are not letting my little brother go into such a volatile situation. He would be killed if he were found out!'

'So make sure he doesn't get found out,' Bucky said matter-of-factly, and Thor turned on him as well.

'He's only fourteen, Barnes! He's just a child!'

'So are you! And the rest of us!'

'I am not letting you send him back there.'

'Oh, yeah? And how are you going to stop us?' Tony asked him coldly.

'Everybody calm down!' Steve said firmly, in a loud, carrying voice. 

When they all fell silent, he continued in a lower pitch.

'I have told you I am fine with Loki staying here. He doesn't deserve any punishment. He was just doing what he needed to save himself -'

'I want to go back,' Loki said suddenly. They all turned to him. 'I'm willing. I'll be your double agent.'

'Loki, no!' Thor said angrily.

'Brother, calm down. If I do not do this they will see me as a murderer and a backstabber for the rest of our time here. I wish to do this. I want to be useful,' Loki explained. He sounded sincere enough, but there was a gleam in his eye that Thor did not like one bit. Loki was planning something.

And everyone was too gleeful to notice.

'That's great, then,' Tony said, smiling widely.

'I mean - if you're fine with it, then go ahead. Just don't do anything life threatening, and make sure you inform us about everything,' Steve instructed.

Natasha was eyeing Loki. She looked just as hesitant as Thor. When she looked up to meet his gaze, he saw his own uneasiness reflected there, and he was glad to know he wasn't the only one watching their backs. As much as he loved his brother, Loki was calculating and cunning from a young age. He always had an ulterior motive.

But who knew? Maybe he was willing to do some good, for a change.

'We're going to contact the Helicarrier now,' Steve was saying. 'I think Sam finished speaking to the parents of all those who died. We need to set up a system so everyone can talk to their own parents. Unity Day celebrations are coming up soon, cheer up, everyone!'

Thor followed his friends, ill at ease.

* * *

Bruce tended to stay away from the communications tent.

Delinquents were lined up, talking to their families, talking to their friends. One person was let in at a time. Sam Wilson had taken it upon himself to notify the next of kin of the deceased delinquents, and after that was done, he was made in charge of the system, setting up meetings for the other delinquents.

Bruce didn't want to speak to anyone. He knew his mother was still there, but he wasn't ready to face her, and he wasn't ready to face his father either. He didn't know if they knew how he'd gotten into jail and he wasn't ready to tell them.

He nervously stood behind Steve as the other boy quickly explained to Sam that they needed to speak to the Chancellor. Natasha had gone to tell Clint about the new developments and Bucky and Thor were out collecting nuts and berries. T'Challa was also away and so was Wanda, which left himself, Steve and Tony.

Sam gave them the thumbs-up and Steve ducked into the communications tent, wincing as he did so. Bruce and Tony followed him.

The unfamiliar face of a Council member was displayed on the screen. She arched an eyebrow at them. 'Who're you and where's Luis? He was supposed to meet his mother.'

Steve told her that she would meet her son soon but they had to speak to the Chancellor about recent developments. She was reluctant but eventually caved in and went off-camera to call the Chancellor.

The ever-grim face of Nick Fury appeared on the screen, his black eyepatch in place.

'Rogers. Stark. Banner. Maria told me you had important news.'

'Yeah, it's about those other people. We know who they are.'

Fury raised an eyebrow. 'Oh, really?'

'Yes, but there's complications,' butted in Tony. 'Is this wire tapped? Or broadcast? Or can anyone else listen in?'

'Not to my knowledge. What's so secret?'

'We know who they are but we believe they're in cahoots with someone important in the Helicarrier. Someone on the Council,' Steve explained.

'And why do you think that?'

Steve told him all that Loki had said. Fury's eyebrows rose progressively higher during the tale and when Steve was done, Fury's eyebrows were so high up his scalp Bruce was sure that if he had hair, his eyebrows wouldn't be visible at all.

'Well. I came here expecting to talk to you about what you should do for the winter but instead I'm going to have to come up with ideas to take down a terrorist organization adamant on destroying everyone except for themselves.'

'Pretty much, yeah.'

'Okay. I'm going to have to think about what you've just told me, and I'll get back to you. For now, make walls. Out of any material. Just make walls around your camp. That'll give you security from both random attacks and dangerous animals,' Fury told them, and they all nodded.

'About the winter. We've found some records that show an old emergency aid depot not too far from where you are. Don't worry, it's not the civilian bunkers you've already discovered. It is of military design, and if the cold gets too bad you can temporarily move there.'

'What kind of supplies will it have?' Bruce asked.

'The kind that will get you through winter.'

'Helpful,' Tony muttered, and then winced, but Fury didn't say anything, just gave him a disparaging look.

'I hope you will increase guard duty and be more vigilant. You're a good leader, Rogers. I have faith in you. We are all very proud of what you have accomplished on Earth by yourself,' Fury said seriously.

'Thank you, Chancellor,' Steve replied, his eyes glowing with pride, as Tony rolled his eyes in the background and Bruce shuffled his feet.

'I have other news as well. We are planning to send down everyone else on the Helicarrier to Earth. It's called Project Exodus. It's actually several projects crammed into one. A drop ship is going to land in around three or four days, and another one scheduled for the early months of next year. Your parents will be guaranteed a spot on the first Exodus ship. Mrs. Barnes, Howard and Maria Stark, and Rebecca and Brian Banner are all going to come down to Earth.'

Steve gasped, and then began to grin. Bruce glanced at Tony, panicked. He did not want to meet his parents so soon. Tony was ashen-faced and looked like he'd rather die than stay alive long enough to see Project Exodus be a success.

'That is all I have to say for now. Be sure to broadcast the Unity Day celebrations. Remember to build walls around your camp and investigate the emergency aid depot. Stay safe.'

Fury left with a swish of his black cloak.

As soon as he was gone, a blonde girl appeared, with short, choppy hair and hard blue eyes. She cast a furtive glance around her and then looked directly at the camera. 'You're the leader of the delinquents?'

'I am, yeah,' Steve said dubiously.

'I'm Carol Danvers. Nice to meet you.'

'Wait, Carol Danvers? As in youngest member of the Council Carol Danvers?' Steve asked, bewildered.

'Yep. Not anymore, though. After I pulled off that stunt with getting Val down to Earth they found me ineligible for the position and kicked me off. Even though it turned out to be for the better good.' Her voice was bitter.

'That's how the system works,' Tony said, still looking pale.

'Yeah. Anyways, I didn't come here and risk my life to bitch about the system. I wanted to tell you that they're lying. Project Exodus... the first ship it isn't ready to come down in three to four days, first of all. Secondly, it only has space for seven hundred people, and there are two thousand on the Helicarrier. That bullshit he was saying about your parents coming down? It's not even finalized yet. They might be coming down next year, they might not come down at all.'

'Thank God,' Tony said immediately, and Carol gave him a curious glance.

'Wait, why? What do they get by lying?' Steve asked, confused.

'No idea. They haven't learned from that fiasco which was the Culling. After they sent you down, they had to inform the people why, but they never did. Instead me and Val broadcast a message across the Helicarrier telling them we were running out of oxygen. The people didn't rebel. Actually, what they did was very sweet.'

She paused, a far-off look on her face, and then continued, 'They volunteered. Around five hundred people volunteered to take part in the Culling. Your friend's mother was one of them, Rogers. They had to decline two hundred people's offers, so she didn't get floated, don't worry. Then the chosen three hundred were thrown out of the Helicarrier. They called it the Culling.'

'That's terrible,' Bruce said quietly.

She nodded. 'Who we are and who we need to be to survive are two very different things, Banner,' she said softly.

There was a moment of silence, and then she asked, 'Can you please send Val in? I mean, if you're done talking, that is. I want to see her. She's okay, right?'

'She's fine, don't worry, Carol. Come on, you two. I'll call her.'

'Thanks, Rogers.'

'No problem.'

The three of them ducked out of the tent. Steve called over Valkyrie, who was sitting next to Okoye and sharpening a knife, and then turned to Tony and Bruce.

'We'd better get started on those walls. Tomorrow I'll go and check out the emergency aid depot.'

'I'm coming,' Tony said determinedly. Steve arched an eyebrow at him, but didn't say anything.

Bruce looked around. The door of the drop ship was open, and he could see delinquents chipping away at the seats - the water from recent rains had already frozen and hardened into ice. Peter Quill and Drax were hanging around the food tent, where they cured meats and stored their food, and were tossing nuts into each other's mouths.

The scene at camp was oddly domestic. He could see Bucky and Natasha sitting together in a corner, talking quietly. Wade and a blind delinquent called Matt Murdock were sparring in the center of camp, Matt somehow beating Wade in almost all the matches. 

T'Challa, Nakia, Okoye and another boy Bruce knew as M'Baku were laughing together. Wanda was smiling at something Vision said, Peter Parker was excitedly talking to T'Challa's adopted sister Shuri, Rhodey, Pepper and Happy were all clustered around Tony and Bruce couldn't help but smile.

Carol's words echoed in his head.

_Who we are and who we need to be to survive are two very different things._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> new chapter! i'm early this time, woo. i wanted to say to all those people who have watched the 100 - i'm not going to follow the grounders' backstory for obvious reasons. hydra is a whole other can of worms and i changed it, mixed it up a bit. even the ending is going to be different from season one's ending. anyways: carol! yay! she's kind of like abby, except she's not anyone's mother, not a medic, and has a girlfriend. 
> 
> i don't have anything else to say, hope you enjoyed babes, see you tomorrow and lots of love~
> 
> ╰⊱♥⊱╮ღ꧁ $ÂĈRЄÐØßĿĪVĪØИ ꧂ღ╭⊱♥≺


	13. it's a cruel world we live in

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i changed the name of the previous chapter and gave this one its old name so please don't skip this chapter, it's a new one

Steve didn't make eye contact with Tony once.

They were walking through the forest, Steve pretending to focus on the hand-drawn map of where the emergency aid depot was located and Tony generally looking in all directions except for the one Steve was in. 

Steve adjusted the backpack on his shoulder and wondered why he'd even agreed to come.

After that whole fiasco he never spoke to Tony. Sure, he'd saved his life, but was that really feelings which went deeper than his usual automatic reflex to push someone out of the way of a knife? And then he'd heard that Tony was scared shitless when he was poisoned, but again - was that really what he thought it was?

Steve exhaled softly, trying not to think about that too much. Tony was a bad influence. From start to end, he'd been nothing but trouble for Steve. Now if Steve could just accept that fact and be done with it, his life would be a lot more simple.

Did he want to, though? 

Tony must've sensed that Steve was thinking about him because he looked directly at Steve, and when Steve met his gaze he held it for a few moments before glancing back down at his shoes.

Steve internally groaned. Those two seconds of eye contact stirred unbidden emotions in the depths of his stomach and now he couldn't think of anything else but Tony's warm brown eyes. He wished he could draw them, but he didn't have a notebook and pencil. 

Maybe that was part of his emotional conflict. No notebook and pencil. Without art, how could Steve survive, really?

Yeah. Keep telling yourself that and you'll eventually become so much of a clown that you won't be able to go anywhere without your fucking red nose, Rogers.

He unconsciously rubbed at his face, trying not to dwell too much on his disaster of a love life. Thankfully, he was distracted when the device Tony was holding began to beep.

'We reached the coordinates they gave us,' the other boy said, looking around.

They were near a large body of water and ruins of what was once a house, or several houses. Steve approached a broken-down pile of bricks that looked like they were once part of a wall. He touched it and it instantly crumbled. Wincing, Steve stepped away, wiping his fingers on his pants.

Rusted metal, shattered glass and bits of plastic completed the desolate scene. He nudged at a dented tin mug with his foot, and a large many-legged insect skittered out.

'This can't be it,' he told Tony, frowning. 

Tony shrugged. 'Wanna go back and talk to Fury about it?' His voice was closed-off and biting.

Steve sighed. 'We're getting nowhere. Let's split up and look for a door, a hatch, anything. This doesn't look like a high-grade military base, it must be underground. Stay within shouting distance.'

Tony nodded, turned and stalked off. Steve took one step after him, hesitant, and then whirled around, walking in the opposite direction. He really wasn't ready to talk to Tony, at all.

He poked around the ruins. There really wasn't much to it. It was wrecked. Steve crouched by what looked like the remains of someone's trophy. The gold-colored plastic was blackened and burned. He ran his fingers over the faded letters on it. Someone had earned this and was proud of it over a century ago. What had happened to them?

'I found it!' Tony yelled, and Steve stood up, jogging to the other boy.

Tony was standing beside a door that was slanting into the ground. It was dark grey metal and had a sticker with the words KEEP OUT plastered over it, along with torn caution tape in the dirt beside it.

Steve looked at Tony, who shrugged. 'After you.'

Carefully, Steve leaned over and gripped the handle. It was dirty and he was cringing the whole time. He pulled at it harshly and the door swung open without much resistance, creaking. Steve peered into the darkness. There were steps leading down to... whatever that was.

He pulled out his flashlight and shone it into the nothingness. The ray of light illuminated the worn steps with puddles of water. The ceiling was dripping and Steve didn't want to know why. He pulled up the hood of his jacket and gingerly stepped into the emergency aid depot.

'Ugh,' he mumbled, under his breath, trying to avoid the puddles.

'Not the first place I'd chose for a vacation,' Tony agreed from behind him.

The steps led down into a room which Steve could only describe as depressing. It was filthy, dark and wet. The room had several entrances to hallways and other rooms which all looked equally as unpleasant as the first one.

It was cold, disgusting and Steve frankly couldn't bear it.

'We can't stay here,' he said determinedly, as the flashlight beam swept over the ruined depot.

'Yeah, no shit, Rogers.'

Steve stared at the empty shelves, the toppled-over boxes and the barrels all around the room. 

'They must've cleared this place out. All the supplies were distributed before the last of the bombs went off, I guess. It's basically of no use to us.'

'I found glow sticks,' Tony said, and then laughed mirthlessly, lifting up several. He began to light one.

Steve ventured further into the room. He realized that his first assumption was wrong - not everything was cleared out. There were several untouched boxes. He presumed that they hadn't gotten time to take everything with them - they'd only taken what they could carry.

He opened a box and found blankets. Thick, coarse blankets, sure, but they would keep them all warm in the winter. 'There's blankets here!' he told Tony, a bit more happier than he was a few minutes back.

Tony clearly wasn't sharing his optimistic view of things.

'Great, that's a fucking miracle. Blankets. They're saving our lives, blankets,' he said bitterly.

Steve raised his eyebrows. 'Woah, there's nothing to get so mad about.'

Tony whirled on him. 'Nothing? Are you dumb, Rogers? The entire world is out to get us and you're saying it's nothing? Not everyone has lived the happy-go-lucky, perfect American life you've had, okay? Stop acting like dumb shit like this is going to change anything. We're screwed and that bald dickhead in space is doing nothing to help us!'

Steve said nothing. Tony, further angered by his lack of response, kicked at a barrel and it fell to the ground with a crash, spilling out grease, oil... and assault rifles.

The two of them stopped and stared.

Tony crouched by the rifles to get a closer look and then whooped.

'This is awesome!'

'Weren't you the one who was complaining about the world being unfair like a minute back?'

'Yeah, well, changed my mind. Dammit, I wish I had Barnes' fingerless gloves right now, I do not want to touch that with my bare hands.'

Steve looked around, grabbed a rag and threw it to Tony. The other boy used it to pick up the rifle and then arched an eyebrow at Steve. 'Do you know how to use this thing?'

'Yeah. Part of our guard training, but we used shock batons most of the time.'

'Can you teach me how to?'

Steve paused, and then met Tony's pleading puppy dog eyes, and he sighed.

'Okay.'

He walked over to Tony and took the rifle from him. 'First you gotta find the charging handle - it's for putting the cartridge in the chamber, clearing stoppages and clearing the weapon, and then you gotta put the magazine - okay, it's already loaded. It's a dummy clip.'

'A what?'

'A dummy clip. Or a dummy round, whatever. The bullets don't have any explosive charge. I guess they used this for practicing their aim down here.'

'Oh.'

'Alright, now you gotta adjust your aim. Here, hold it. Put one hand there - don't touch the trigger - and put your other hand over here, on the front end of the handguard.'

'The movies make this look cooler. Hell, even Romanoff makes this look cooler.'

'Yeah, well, first off, she's using a pistol, secondly, no idea where she learned it but she's awesome at using a gun. Which you are not.'

'Ouch, wonder boy.'

'Don't call me wonder boy. Okay, now stand like this, move the gun a bit lower, put your foot there, yeah, like that -'

While Steve was adjusting the other boy's grip, he realized he'd moved a lot closer to him that he'd actually meant to. He was right behind Tony, one arm hooked around him to move the gun a bit lower. He could feel the other boy's muscles through the thin material of his shirt.

Flushed, Steve stepped away.

Tony smirked as though he knew the effect he had on Steve. 'Do I just fire now?'

'Yeah. Turn off safety and fire.'

_Click._

_Bang._

Steve and Tony both winced at the loud noise, and then Tony cheered, exhilarated.

'That was epic! It feels so good, shooting a gun, I never knew!'

His excitement was infectious and Steve was laughing along with him without even thinking about it. Tony dug in his own backpack, pulled out a packet of nuts and he tossed some to Steve. 'Eat up, wonder boy, we got boxes to unpack.'

Steve popped the nuts into his mouth, still smiling.

Maybe Tony wasn't so bad after all.

* * *

Tony had gone up to get some fresh air when the hallucinations began.

He was sitting in the grass beside the water, watching a fish lazily swimming in the shallows, when the world began to flash eight different colors.

Tony stood up, panicking, and stumbled. The world was now spinning. 

_Okay, it's multicolored and it's spinning. This is not a drill, Stark. I repeat, not a drill._

He fell to his knees and crawled over to where he'd carelessly thrown his backpack onto the ground. Water, his hazy mind told him, and he pulled out his water bottle and chugged it down, spilling water all over his shirt.

It did nothing.

Tony was really freaking out now. What was happening?

'Steve!' he tried to call, but his voice came out slurred and hysterical, distorting the word until it sounded like 'Shteeeeeee'.

He backed away on his hands and knees. The forest around him was swirling in shades of yellow, pink and blue. He could see images of people flashing by him, too fast for him to make out. He could see bright colored animals, too, prancing around the spinning world.

He was dizzy. Very, very dizzy.

Tony curled up into a fetal position and closed his eyes. He could feel the world flipping over. Why was it flipping over? Why was everything so insane?

'Anthony.'

He froze.

He knew that voice.

He knew it and he hated it.

'Anthony, _get up.'_

Against his will, Tony sat up straight and looked directly into the eyes of Howard Stark.

His father looked just like how he had on the day he'd stood by and watched as the guards took Tony away, screaming, and then threw him into the jail cell. His button-down shirt and slacks were neatly pressed and ironed, and his short brown hair and mustache were combed and slicked back.

Howard's cold gaze swept over him, and then he huffed in disdain.

'Stand up, boy.'

'No,' Tony managed to get out, and felt a spark of pride as Howard blinked in shock.

'What?'

'I said no. Who are you to even come back into my life, old man? I don't want to talk to you. Go the fuck away,' Tony said firmly, emboldened by Howard's confusion.

'Anthony, you are a disgrace. I am not here to come back into your life. I do not want you. Who would want to even talk to you? All of your friends, they were your friends in the first place because of your money, and they stayed for it as well. You think they care about you? You're delusional, you pathetic fag,' Howard said icily.

Tony couldn't speak. He knew it shouldn't matter, his father was only saying that to make him feel bad, but it stung. It stung to hear the man who was part of the reason he existed, who had given him his childhood and who had raised him for sixteen years speak like that.

'Your father's right, Tony,' a soft voice said, and one of the faceless people behind Howard stepped forward, revealing the blonde hair and sad eyes of Maria Stark.

'Mom, no -' Tony began, but he was cut off.

'You shouldn't get so angry at him, Tony, he wants the best for you. He's giving you criticism so you can improve. You should take his advice.'

Tony tried to tell her she was wrong, and that he was free to do as he liked, and being gay was who he was, not a choice and he couldn't change it, and that sometimes he wanted to die because of how they treated him, but he couldn't get any words out.

Howard and Maria faded into the background as more people stepped out. Obadiah Stane, Justin Hammer, Ivan Vanko, Harley Keener - hell, even Edwin Jarvis - spoke to him in aloof, hostile voices, telling him he was a mistake, he should've never been born, he could do nothing right, wearing stony expressions and seeming distant.

Tony was frozen in shock. He couldn't move, tears silently running down his cheeks, when suddenly there was a loud bang and the people around him disappeared. The world returned to normal and he could breathe again.

He took a gasping breath, furiously wiped at his face and whirled around.

Steve was standing behind him, holding a gun, his face determined and his jaw set. When Tony looked back at the trees he'd been facing before, an injured Grounder was glaring at him viciously. Tony scrambled backwards, managed to get on his feet and ran. 

Thankfully the Grounder turned and went back into the forest, his gait uneven. Tony could see blood. A lot of blood. Steve had shot at the Grounder, therefore potentially saving Tony's life for the second damn time.

'You gotta stop doing that. I owe you, like, three souls of the damned and my firstborn by now,' Tony said jokingly, purposefully not looking in Steve's direction for fear that he would see Tony's tear-stricken face.

Alas, fuck Steve, the mom friend who knew exactly when someone was unhappy.

'Tony. What's wrong?' he asked gently, crouching beside him.

Those two words. That was all it took for the fragile walls Tony had built to come crashing down and he snapped under the pressure. He wasn't outright crying, but tears were sliding down his face silently and he couldn't form coherent words.

'Hey, hey, it's okay. Let it out. You probably need it.'

'Did you - did it happen to you, too? The world spinning? The colors, the people?'

Steve paused before replying. 'Yeah. It did. I think it was something about those nuts we ate. I need to talk to T'Challa about it.'

'Who did you see?'

'... my mother. And some others. They're all dead.'

'I'm sorry.'

'Don't be. You?'

'I saw my parents. My old butler, some people who didn't like me very much and some who did. But it didn't seem like it. When I saw them.' Tony was gasping again now.

'Hey, it's alright. I know. They said some things to me. My mother, as well. It was all a hallucination, Tony, they don't really think that, you know -'

'They do,' Tony said, sitting up straight, his voice suddenly firm and steady. 'They think every single bit of whatever they said to me. My father, he hates me. He wishes I wasn't born. I was a disgrace to him.'

Tony took a deep breath. 'When I was younger, my family was targeted. By terrorists, an insane serial killer, a jealous competitor - I have no idea, but I was injured. They had to find a power source to help me survive. They did, and it's called the arc reactor.'

He pulled up the front of his shirt. Steve stared open-eyed at the arc reactor and he uncomfortably tugged it back down. He'd never actually shown it to anyone outside his family circle.

Steve seemed to notice his uneasiness and immediately apologized, but Tony shrugged it off.

'It's fine, I'm just not used to it, I guess. So, anyways, my father thought the arc reactor made me weak. It just made him dislike me more. When I got older it got worse. He used me as his own punching bag. I still have bruises from like, three years ago, I think.'

Tony played with the hem of his shirt, not meeting Steve's sympathetic eyes.

'And - uh, one year ago, I came out to him. I told him I was gay. I don't know why I did it. I guess I thought he wouldn't mind. Well, he did. A lot. He beat me up, screamed at me, threw me out of the cabin. The next day I built a robot and programmed it to sabotage the meeting with his latest client. It was an important meeting. They were discussing about the launch of a new project before I ruined it.'

He laughed mirthlessly. 'And then I ended up in jail.'

'Tony, that's... that's terrible. I'm so sorry.'

'I've never actually told this to anyone before, you know,' he said conversationally, looking into Steve's compassionate blue irises.

'Well, I was thinking. About... about our conversation earlier.'

'What?'

'You know. The one where I'm pretty sure you asked me out and I rejected you because I was scared, or some bullshit.'

'Oh. Yeah. What about it?'

Steve hesitated. 'I've reconsidered.'

A slow smile spread across Tony's face. 'Oh, really?'

'Yeah. I reconsidered, and my new answer is yes. Yes, I'll be your boyfriend, Tony Stark.'

Tony laughed out loud and then pulled Steve towards him, kissing him deeply.

It was a cruel world they lived in, but as they sat there on the grass, hands tangled in each other's hair, open-mouthed against each other's lips, Tony believed that it could actually be better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> new chapter, babes! guess what, steve's gotten over being a self sacrificial dumbass. well, he's still self sacrificial. just less of a dumbass, i guess. also, tony angst! :( fuck howard. like, can we just boycott him? ugh. idk why i make myself write angst but it's there in the tags, thanks to past me, who thought i was up for a challenge, or some bullshit like that.
> 
> anyways, hope y'all enjoyed today's bit of fanfic, stay safe, see you tomorrow and lots of love,
> 
> ╰⊱♥⊱╮ღ꧁ $ÂĈRЄÐØßĿĪVĪØИ ꧂ღ╭⊱♥≺


	14. let the sky fall

Natasha sighed and took another sip of her drink.

The delinquents were listening in through remote broadcast as Chancellor Fury gave a Unity Day Celebration speech on the Ark about how everyone was going to be on the ground next year. Everyone was happy and relaxed. Scott Lang had made a batch of "Unity Juice", or whatever, and was serving it out to everyone.

She looked down at her own cup of Unity Juice. She had no idea what was in it but it tasted good, so she continued drinking it, watching as everyone else joked around and laughed. There was a festive spirit in the air. She could sense it. Maybe it was the fact that Scott also had whiskey from the bunkers and was giving it out to the older kids.

'Hey,' slurred Clint, collapsing next to her, a drunken smile on his face.

She arched an eyebrow. 'Just how much whiskey did you drink?'

'Uh... I don't know. A lot?' he offered, still smiling like an idiot.

Natasha rolled her eyes. 'You're drunk off your ass, Clint. Ever stop to think about the fact that you nearly died a few days ago?'

'Yeah, that was a few days ago,' he told her, and she reached over to smack the back of his head.

 _'Ow!_ What was that for?'

'You being an idiot.'

'You're not my babysitter,' Clint whined.

'I'm all one but paid.'

'I don't underst - oh, look, there's Darce. Bye, Nat!' Clint stood up, almost fell over, but still managed to walk over to the brunette, who gave him a smile and handed him another cup.

Natasha leaned back against the tree and looked around at their camp. They'd made some significant changes. The most noticeable one was the wall. They'd made a wall from scrap metal, wood, heavy barrels and boxes from the aid depot - anything strong they could find, really. The trees helped, forming a sort of support structure for the wall.

They had a gate - a very small gate - at one side of the camp, and they had a constant guard system beside the gate, to let people in and out.

The next change was the fact that almost everyone was armed. They'd handed out the assault rifles from the aid depot to the kids older than fifteen. James had taken it upon himself to teach the inexperienced delinquents how to hold and shoot a gun, and Steve would occasionally jump in and help him.

There had been a change in the air ever since the delinquents got the rifles. They were no longer scared shitless, waiting to be picked off one by one like fish in a barrel. They were ready for whatever the hell HYDRA might throw at them. 

Loki was back in HYDRA's base. They staged it to look like he escaped and even paraded around pretending to look for him to convince any HYDRA spies watching that Loki really had gotten out all by himself. They had a rendezvous point and Natasha and Thor were supposed to meet him the next day.

Natasha decided she was far too sober to be out in the open and headed for her tent. She, Valkyrie and Bruce had been working on the dummy bullets. They'd replaced the dud mixture with another one that had an explosive charge and dealt a lot of damage when fired.

It was hard work and Natasha blinked at the mess in her tent. Ever since Clint moved to the bunker she had to find another roommate. Or tent mate. Whatever. James - even though he was technically her boyfriend - came over a lot, but he was sharing a tent with Steve.

She had to make do by herself, and she preferred it that way.

'Hey.' 

As if he'd been summoned by her thinking about him, James wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and she closed her eyes, leaning back against him. He was holding a cup of whiskey and he offered it to her. She mulled over it for a moment, and then took it from him and chugged it bottoms-up. He laughed against her neck.

She turned to him and hooked a hand in his hair. 'Hey, yourself. Why're you here?'

'What, so I can't check on my best girl?' he replied teasingly.

She rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. 

'James, we both know that's really not why you're here. You talked to me literally ten minutes ago.'

He grinned and kissed her, pulling her closer to him, and she wound her hands into his soft brown hair. His arms were still around her waist. His lips were slightly chapped but she was sure hers were too. She stood up on her tiptoes to deepen the kiss. A few moments later they broke away, flushed and gasping for breath, but they were smiling.

'There's news at the gate for you,' James told her, lazily tucking a strand of her short red hair behind her ear.

'Yeah?' she hummed in reply, too focused on the definition of his jawline.

'I think Loki's back. He has something to say. He also has company. Steve and Thor are handling them.'

Natasha's eyes widened and she placed down both of the cups she'd been holding.

'Really?'

'Yeah. They didn't ask for you specifically but I thought I should tell you. Wanna check it out?'

'Obviously.'

She ducked out of the tent and James followed her. As they walked towards the gate James unconsciously reached for her hand and she allowed him to tangle his fingers with hers. It was oddly intimate and she wasn't used to it, but it felt nice and rather comforting. She reveled in the new sensation and craned her neck for any sight of the news James was talking about.

Sure enough, at the gate, Steve and Thor were standing there, talking with hushed tones and flying gestures to someone Natasha couldn't see. When they got closer, Natasha saw the familiar sharp cheekbones and slicked back dark hair of Thor's younger brother, Loki. He was dressed neatly in HYDRA gear, his body language betraying nothing.

Behind him were two other HYDRA agents. They were wearing headgear and face guards, so Natasha could only see their eyes. She felt the effects of the whiskey she drank kicking in, but it was just one glass. She could handle a lot more. She wasn't worried. James and Natasha stopped

'- how can we be sure this isn't a trap?' Steve was saying.

Loki rolled his eyes. 'The purpose of our mission is to simply confer with you. The Supreme HYDRA will not be attending but his subordinate is. He will meet you on the bridge tomorrow at twelve on the dot. Do not be late and do not miss it. This may be your last chance to speak to us.'

Loki and the other two whirled around and disappeared into the forest.

Steve let out a sharp exhale and caught sight of Bucky and Natasha. 'Hey, Buck, Nat. As you can see, that was an absolute shitshow.'

'My brother had not informed us of this meeting. I believe it was an official invite sent by HYDRA and they used him to make us feel at ease,' Thor said in his booming voice.

'HYDRA's inviting us to talk to them?' James asked, confused.

'Yep. They want to smooth things out. Get to know us. Who we are and all that. It's a peaceful meeting, by the way,' he said warningly, looking directly at James, who already had a hand on his Smith and Wesson.

'C'mon, Stevie, you gotta be kidding,' James said angrily. 'These are the same people who killed Pietro and four other kids. They hurt Clint and want to get rid of all of us. You really think they're going to play nice now?'

'Buck, we're not like them, okay? We aren't going to gun them down, it's not what we do -'

'They deserve it!'

'Yeah, well, we're not the ones to decide. Listen, just play fair this once, okay? If we do get shot at you're allowed to bug me about it for the rest of my life,' Steve said exasperatedly.

'That's if you even _have_ a rest of your life,' James muttered.

Steve ignored him and turned to Thor. 'Tomorrow we'll send a scouting party. You, me and Natasha. That's all. No one else.'

'What the hell, Stevie?' James protested. 'You're going to go out there with no weapons and you aren't even taking me with -?' 

'Bucky,' Steve sighed, 'I'm not going to argue with you about this. I don't want to risk anything, okay? Please.'

James opened his mouth to argue, and then caught sight of Steve's pleading eyes and reluctantly gave in.

'Fine. But if you die I _swear_ I'll kill you.'

'Deal,' Steve said, grinning.

James watched him and Thor walk away, and then turned to Natasha.

'Talia,' he began, but she cut him off.

'You're going to go anyway and you're going to carry at least three guns while you're at it. Don't worry, I won't tell,' she stated matter-of-factly, and he smirked.

'You know, I think I really _am_ whipped,' he told her, and she grinned.

'You are, that's for sure.'

* * *

Clint's head was hurting. Like, really badly. He couldn't even think straight, the sunlight was too bright, and he was pretty sure this wasn't the bunker.

Bruce was going to _kill_ him.

He propped himself up on his elbows. He was in someone's tent, lying on the mess of sleeping bags and sheets they had inside. He wasn't wearing anything except for his boxers. Was he really that drunk last night? To be fair, it was Unity Day. He was allowed to have a little fun, right?

Clint turned to his left. Darcy Lewis was fast asleep, her brown hair scattered across the pillow, dressed in nothing but a bra and her underwear. 

Okay, so they had sex last night. Whatever. The only thing unusual was that it happened in her tent.

Clint yawned, stretched and then winced as the wound throbbed painfully. He needed coffee. He would actually kill for a good cup of hot, steaming coffee right about then. Sadly, they were on Earth, and he needed to make do with water. He reached for his clothes, ignoring the massive headache that was building slowly behind his temples, and got dressed.

He ducked out of the tent. He would speak to Darcy later, it wasn't that important. 

Clint caught sight of Steve, Thor and Natasha standing at the gate, all of them wearing full gear - jackets, utility belts, boots, backpacks, the whole shebang. He frowned. A hunting party would carry weapons. A border patrol wouldn't be wearing so much clothes. There was something else going on.

He walked towards them, grabbing an energy bar from Peter on the way and a glass of water from a disgruntled Wade. They were talking quietly but when they saw Clint they all straightened up and plastered smiles on their faces.

Hmm.

'What's up?' he asked them, mouth full. 

'Nothing much, really -' began Steve, just as Thor said, 'We're going to confer with HYDRA!'

Clint choked.

 _'What?'_ he got out, after Natasha thumped him on the back.

Steve glared at Thor. 'Yeah. They sent Loki and some other goons to call us to some bridge and we're going to talk there, I guess.'

'I'm coming,' Clint said determinedly.

Steve sighed. 'No. I already had this conversation with Bucky. First - you're injured, you're not going anywhere. Secondly - it's just us three, okay?'

'What the hell, man?' Clint began, but Steve was already walking away.

Natasha gave him an apologetic look. 'I'll tell you all about it later!' she called, following Steve and Thor. 

He flipped her off. 'Traitor!'

Clint whirled around and stalked off, furious, and nearly crashed into Bucky.

'Woah, what happened?'

'They happened!' he said angrily, gesturing towards the gate, where the three backstabbers had just left the camp.

'Ah,' Bucky said, nodding knowledgeably. He smirked and handed Clint a gun. 'Well, fuck them. We're their backup whether they like it or not.'

Clint took the gun, a slow smile spreading across his face. He chugged the water and threw the cup to Wade, who caught it effortlessly and gave Clint the bird, which he promptly returned.

'Let's go, then, Barnes.'

It was a challenge to stay out of both sight and earshot of the three. Thankfully, both Clint and Bucky knew how to walk silently, unlike Steve and Thor, who knew nothing of the word 'subtle'. He was sure Nat had heard them. She didn't miss anything. However, Bucky assured him that she already knew about backup, so he shouldn't be worried.

The bridge was quite far away. Clint had never come across it before. It took around an hour of stalking the trio of delinquents before it finally came into view. It was a plain thing, with no fancy design and no tall structure - a basic bridge, spanning across a thundering river that roared past them and whose spray kept getting into Clint's eyes.

'Stay here,' Bucky whispered, yanking him back into the undergrowth before he walked right into the open. They were just beside the bridge and they had a clear view of the diplomatic party - out of their sight but hopefully still in earshot. Steve, Nat and Thor walked onto the structure. Even from this distance Clint could see the tension in Steve's shoulders and the apprehension in Thor's stance. Natasha was unreadable.

They waited for around fifteen minutes. Clint was beginning to worry that the whole thing was a practical joke when he heard the sound of horse hooves.

He sat up. He'd never seen a horse before, but they looked cool. He couldn't wait to see one in real life.

Clint watched as around ten Grounders emerged from the trees. The lead Grounder was on a horse, his face obscured by the hood he wore. The others were on foot, in full gear - and carrying weapons.

'Fuck Steve,' Bucky whispered angrily, and Clint nodded along. Fuck Steve, indeed.

The lead Grounder stopped ten feet away from the delinquents. He got off the horse and approached them until he was standing just five feet from Steve.

Carefully, he pushed back his hood and Clint gasped.

His face was hollowed, sunken in and a bright red. His skin was stretched tight over his skull and his eyes protruded from behind sharp cheekbones. He looked like someone had set him on fire and then painted him red. It was horrifying.

Steve, not one to be deterred by people with bright red faces, held out his hand.

'Hello. I'm Steve Rogers, and I'm the leader of the delinquent camp.'

Red did not take it, and Steve awkwardly let his hand drop to his side.

'Yeah. Um, okay. I wanted to ask if you were willing to come to an agreement with us -' Steve began, but he was cut off.

'I am not here to make amends, boy,' Red said, in a harsh, grating rasp, his eyes narrowing. 'It is too late for them.'

'Wait, then why did you -' Steve started, but was cut off again, this time by Natasha.

'We would like to ask what we have done wrong, Your Honor,' she said, in a clear, carrying voice. 'We came here to see if we could fix what we have done and offer our assistance in any way.'

Clint beamed. Leave it to Nat to patch up Steve's terrible diplomatic skills.

Red smiled, or did his best impression at smiling. 'You have spunk, girl. Doesn't matter. What you have done is far beyond fixing. You started a war you don't know how to finish when you burned a village to the ground with your silly flares. You invaded tour land and sent an armed raiding party to capture one of our people. All these actions are acts of war.'

Natasha paused, stymied. 

'We did not mean to,' she replied tentatively. 'We were just trying to survive. Those flares - we were calling to the Helicarrier for help, we never meant to burn down a village. We can help you rebuild, and we will offer our resources -'

Red laughed. 'What resources?'

'We didn't start the war,' Steve butted in angrily, and Clint could _see_ Nat suppress the urge to roundhouse kick him. 'You injured one of our own and tied him up to warn him off. You killed five of us and you also raided us several times. You took one of us hostage and you stabbed and poisoned me. I think that these are all acts of war as well.'

There was a ringing silence.

'Very well then, Mr. Rogers,' Red said finally. 'If you think so, then it shall be war.'

Clint saw the Grounders' hands move to their weapons and he sprung from the bushes, aiming his weapon. 'All of you, run!' he yelled.

Natasha had already taken off. She sprinted towards the forest in a zig-zag pattern, followed closely by Steve and Thor. Both Bucky and Clint were returning fire as the Grounders began to shoot. A spear went flying over Clint's head.

Natasha, Steve and Thor had caught up with Clint and Bucky and the five of them bolted.

They ran for another five minutes and then Clint had to stop, wheezing, his stab wound sending sparks of pain throughout his body. They walked back to camp from then on, not saying a word to each other, resolutely staying silent the whole way.

Once they were in camp, Steve rounded on Bucky and Clint.

'Who told you to come? With guns, no less?'

'Stevie, are you dumb?' Bucky retorted. 'You saw them, they were going to kill you!'

'Clint, you're hurt and you know it!' Steve said angrily, ignoring Bucky.

'Steve, _don't start._ What were you doing? Why didn't you let me do the speaking?' Natasha snapped.

'Talia, leave it alone -' Bucky began, but Clint interrupted.

'What did you guys think you would even gain by going there? All you've done is confirmed that we're at fucking war -'

'You're one to speak, you could've _died_ and we wouldn't have known -'

'Ha, says the dude who walked into a trap thinking everyone was as noble and righteous as him -'

'All of you _shut up!'_ Thor said angrily. 'Fighting is accomplishing nothing!'

'Yeah, right,' Clint scoffed, turning away. He looked up at the night sky and frowned.

'Guys?'

'What?' Natasha said angrily.

'When was the first Exodus ship scheduled to land, again?'

'In, like, thirty hours, if I was paying attention to Fury's babble. Sometime around tomorrow. Why?'

'Because I think it's landing now.'

'What are you on about?' Bucky began, but then caught sight of the drop ship hurtling through the sky.

'Woah,' Steve mumbled. He turned to Bucky. 'Your mom's coming down, Buck!' he said excitedly, and the two of them broke into wide grins, all enmity forgotten.

'Wait,' Natasha said slowly. 'Something's wrong. It's coming down way too fast. Where's the parachutes? Why aren't they activating? Why's it coming down a day early?'

Clint turned to watch just as there was a sonic boom and the drop ship exploded into flames.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> buckynat softness and everyone being idiots is the theme of today's chapter :) first off, steve is terrible at diplomacy, can we agree on that? he's great at saving the world and all, but being subtle and lying and twisting words around is NOT his strong point, sorry, steeb. secondly - the drop ship exploded. it exploded, y'all. i'm stressing on that. let it sink in. it exploded and guess who was on it?
> 
> yeah, lots of angst in the next chapter. anyways, that's all from me, have a great day, see you tomorrow and lots of love,
> 
> ╰⊱♥⊱╮ღ꧁ $ÂĈRЄÐØßĿĪVĪØИ ꧂ღ╭⊱♥≺


	15. tears of blood

Thor was used to seeing the camp devastated by grief.

He looked around at the delinquents. Those who had parents were either sobbing, staring into nothingness with empty eyes or taking out their rage on anything they could see.

As soon as the drop ship had exploded, Steve had contacted the Helicarrier in a frenzy, Barnes right beside him, both of them shaking with silent tears and rage. Carol had immediately connected, her face pale and her blue eyes watery.

She explained that HYDRA had made a move on Unity Day. As they were having the celebrations, after the speech given by Fury, someone had set off a bomb. It had severely injured around fifty people and had killed twelve. Their doctors had so much work to do they needed all hands on deck as well as volunteers.

Everyone had been so caught up in trying to help the people injured by the bombs that they didn't realize there was someone on the Council plotting to send the first Exodus ship down early - Arnim Zola, a renowned Swiss biochemist. Zola managed to get HYDRA operatives on the drop ship and also convinced civilians to come too, telling everyone it was an emergency and they needed to launch the Exodus ship now.

Carol also explained that they hadn't decoupled the Exodus ship from the Helicarrier, meaning that all of the systems on the Helicarrier had been crippled and everyone was going to die soon because of the lack of power. She told them the thrusters were failing and the oxygen supply was rapidly decreasing, and the only room which had a decent amount of power was the communication cabin.

Delinquents had lined up, clamoring for news of their parents. Carol had tried to run through all the names and cleared most of them, but there were the unlucky few whose parents had forcibly been dragged onto the Exodus ship.

Thor hadn't been worried. His father and everyone close to him lived on Asgard, after all. He was anxious about his friends, though.

Winnifred Barnes had been on the Exodus ship. When Steve and Bucky heard the news, they broke down. Bucky hadn't talked to anyone ever since the declaration. He was in Natasha's tent, where she was sitting with him, and Thor could hear quiet sobs from within. Steve had sat in a corner of the camp, his eyes blank and his shoulders stiff. He wouldn't look at anyone and the only person he even acknowledged was Tony.

Howard and Maria Stark weren't on the Exodus ship, and when Tony heard, several conflicting emotions passed across his face. Thor detected relief, a sort of weary resignation, anger and indignation. Bruce heard that his father had been on the ship, but his mother was fine. He took the news surprisingly well and went about his normal duties, but he was quieter than usual and his gaze was watery when Thor went to check on him.

Clint and Natasha didn't have anyone to worry about. But the other delinquents did. Thor knew that Peter Quill, T'Challa, Sam, and Sharon had all lost either one or both parents, and the some of the others had lost dear friends or lovers. The lucky ones who either didn't have anyone they loved or whose friends and family were still on the Helicarrier were walking around, comforting their friends.

Jane appeared next to him. It had become a common thing for the two of them to sneak out and watch the stars at night. Everyone knew about it and they all didn't care. Steve had spoken to him once, telling him to be careful, and that was it. 

'What are we going to do now?' she asked quietly.

'That depends on T'Challa. He is the camp's leader while Rogers is temporarily incapacitated,' Thor told her.

She looked towards T'Challa, who was quietly talking to Valkyrie and Clint.

'Should we go ask him?'

'Why not?'

The two of them made their way to the Wakandan prince. Thor connected with T'Challa on many levels. Firstly, they were both from foreign space stations that weren't officially joined with the others on Unity Day. Secondly, they were both royals - sons of Chancellors, carrying on a legacy. Thor knew T'Challa had been thrown in jail when seeking revenge for the death of his father.

'Greetings, T'Challa,' Thor said respectfully.

'Prince Thor, Miss Foster.' T'Challa's voice was just as courteous as Thor's. 'You have come at the right time. We are planning to send a scouting party to the drop ship, to see if there are any survivors. Do you wish to come?'

'Yes, gladly,' Thor replied, his eyes lighting up. He turned to Jane, who rolled her eyes at him fondly. 

'Just be safe,' she told him, and pulled him down to kiss him on the cheek.

Before Thor could say anything, she turned and walked away.

He opened his mouth to snap at Barton for smirking when Tony emerged from Steve's tent, his dark eyes tired, his hair sticking up in all directions, but he smiled at them weakly. 

'Hey,' he told them. 'Heard you were going to investigate the Exodus ship. I'm coming, too.'

'What about Steve?' Valkyrie asked, arching an eyebrow.

'He's asleep. Finally. I made sure of that, and I left water and food, too,' Tony replied, rubbing a hand across his face. There was stubble on his chin and his neatly clipped facial hair looked scruffy after days on Earth with no razor and shaving cream.

'Fine, then, let's go. Barton, you're staying here, stab wounds don't heal overnight, you know. The rest of you are coming, yeah?' T'Challa asked, ignoring Clint's glare.

They all made noises of assent. Thor gave a distasteful look at the gun Valkyrie was attempting to hand him and he hefted his spear. She shrugged and tossed it to Tony, who caught it, fumbled with it and nearly dropped it.

They nodded to the guard at the gate - Drax - and set off in the direction of where the drop ship had landed. The forest was eerily quiet. They were all holding their guns in defensive poses, aware of the threat that lurked above their heads at every moment. 

The drop ship had landed in the opposite direction from the Grounders' territory, much to the scouting party's relief. Thor had been walking for half an hour when he caught scent of smoke and burning metal. He wrinkled his nose at the stench and turned to the others, who were making the same face, having detected it too.

As they got closer, it got worse, but thankfully it wasn't so harsh that they needed to cover their mouths and noses. It was barely tolerable, however. Thor guessed that the drop ship was no longer on fire but the stench lingered in the air.'

He ducked under a frond and came to a halt before the ruins of the first Exodus ship.

It had been a massive explosion. Any small hope that there were survivors which had lingered in Thor's heart immediately vanished. The ground was blackened and the charred metal was poking up in different places. The main shell of the drop ship was utterly destroyed. Puddles of weird-smelling pink liquid were everywhere.

Thor approached a puddle, scrunching up his nose, trying to block out the smell, when Tony yelled at him.

'Thor, get back!'

Thor froze. He looked at Tony's panicked expression and then slowly backed away from the pink liquid.

'What's that?' he asked.

'It's highly explosive hydrazine. It can cause devastation in its raw form. Watch.' He got out a water bottle, tipped out its contents, filled it with the hydrazine and threw it.

Boom.

A small explosion rocked the nearby forest and the birds shot up into the sky, chirping madly.

'Clear the area,' T'Challa instructed, after a moment of silence from the delinquents, 'and be careful while you're doing it.'

'Look for the black box,' Tony added. 'Maybe we can get some explanation as to why the Exodus ship crashed in the first place. Launching without decoupling it from the Helicarrier shouldn't do any damage to the ship, just to the actual Helicarrier.'

The four of them set about to looking for the device, carefully avoiding the puddles of hydrazine. The black box was easy enough to locate. Tony carefully stowed it away in his backpack, deciding to check it when they were in camp, and the four of them turned their backs on the desolate scene and trudged back home.

* * *

Bruce was sitting in a lookout spot on the wall. 

He quite enjoyed the duty, mostly because it involved staying away from people and keeping to himself. Usually he would be patching up someone's wounds or Clint would dominate the lookout position, so it was rare he was sitting up here, watching for any signs of intruders.

The delinquents were prepared. Tony had set up a tripwire trap around the camp, just outside the walls, to notify them if some hapless Grounder was planning a sneak attack. They'd also set up lookout and gunman posts. If HYDRA attacked them at their camp they would have the high ground and they could pick off the agents one by one.

Morbid, but everyone agreed that if they needed to kill some secret murderous organization to stay alive then they would do it.

Bruce was currently tapping his fingers on the barricade of the lookout post when something flashed by at the corner of his vision.

He froze, and then fumbled for the binoculars.

Holding them up to his eyes, he peered at the area where he'd seen the shadowy figure. Maybe it was one of the delinquents, maybe it was Loki coming back to deliver news - but he wasn't going to take any chances.

At that moment, Mantis, who had been on guard duty, yelled at the top of her lungs, 'The trap's set off! There's an intruder in the camp!'

Bruce nearly fell off his lookout post. He scrambled to the ladder and climbed down.

Already there was a crowd gathering at the gate. Steve and Bucky were outside, guns at the ready, and behind them the crowd followed. Other delinquents emerged from their tents, wide-eyed and scared. 

There was shouting and a high-pitched voice screaming. Bruce pushed through the crowd, trying hard not to jostle and step on people's feet, and squeezed to the front, where Steve and Bucky were dragging something bloody behind them.

Some _one._

Rumlow, with cuts all over his face, so bloody and covered in mud that they could barely make out his eyes, was thrown in the center of camp. He collapsed on the ground, on his hands and knees, tried to get up, and then fell back, panting.

Wade already had a gun aimed at his head and so did Bucky, but Peter intervened. 'Guys, wait, don't kill him yet, he might have information! Look, he's bleeding, the Grounders must've got him!' Everyone looked at Peter, and then looked at Steve.

'Take him to the drop ship,' Steve ordered, his words icy, his eyes hard. It was obvious he still hadn't gotten over the death of Mrs. Barnes. Bucky, who looked even worse, seized Rumlow by the arms and dragged him over to the drop ship, ignoring his yelps and whimpers.

Bruce followed Steve into the drop ship, where Bucky and Wade were tying up Rumlow.

Once they were done, Steve gestured for Bruce to close the door of the drop ship, told everyone else except for Clint and Natasha to clear out, and stood in front of Rumlow, who refused to meet Steve's eyes.

'What are you doing here? Do you have a death wish?' Steve asked him, his voice cold and brittle.

'I was... taken,' Rumlow rasped, prompted by Wade prodding him in the side roughly with a boot.

'By the Grounders?' Steve asked, raising an eyebrow.

'Yes. They knew I was in the camp. They killed Sitwell and Rollins, I don't know what happened to Odinson's brother. They kept me hostage, tortured me for information,' he said hoarsely, still not meeting anyone's eyes.

Bruce's gaze wandered to Rumlow's bloody hands. The fingernails of both had been ripped off completely. There were also burn scars across Rumlow's face and arms. He looked away, feeling nauseous.

'What did you tell them?' Bucky snarled.

Rumlow finally looked up, his eyes dead and void of any emotion. 'Everything.'

Steve closed his eyes for a long moment, and then opened them. 'Stay here until you feel better, and then get out or else I'll let those two shoot you in the head,' he told Rumlow flatly, and then stalked out.

Bruce was about to leave as well when Rumlow began coughing blood.

He turned and immediately went towards Rumlow, thinking there might be some sort of internal bleeding which he needed to treat quickly, when Rumlow looked at him and Bruce saw he was crying.

He was crying tears of blood.

Bruce staggered back, and then yelled at Bucky and Wade to get away. They didn't know what the hell was causing the tears of blood. Bruce had seen sicknesses before that caused the same symptoms. He didn't know if Rumlow had the same sickness and Bruce wasn't going to stay to find out.

It turned out he was right in telling them to get away, but he wasn't fast enough.

Wade wheezed and doubled over, coughing. He saw splatters of blood on the ground. Bucky was leaning against the drop ship wall, clearly trying his best to hold in a cough of his own.

Bruce felt faint. He reached up to wipe his nose and his hand came away red. He needed to find a cure for it or else they would all die.

'What's going on?' Steve asked, turning to them, his eyes concerned.

 _'Stay... back,'_ Bruce gasped. 'Biological warfare. They... they gave him a sickness... it's contagious.'

Steve ignored him and stepped closer, holding him up. He reached for Bucky to try and support him as well but he began to gag and he stumbled.

'Stevie, get the fuck away now,' Bucky got out, but he was too late. Steve was retching up blood as well.

'We need a quarantine, fast, before anyone else gets sick,' Bruce told Steve thickly, and Steve nodded.

'Get in the drop ship and lock the door. It's only Rumlow in there anyway. When T'Challa comes back someone will have to tell him what's going on - Nat, can you?'

Clint and Natasha, who had gotten out far before the others, were standing at a safe distance. Natasha's eyes were focused on her boyfriend and she nodded.

'Intruder!' Mantis called out again, and Natasha hesitated, her attention still on Bucky. 'Go,' he croaked out, 'I'll be fine.'

She gave him a disparaging look and turned to follow Clint.

Bruce staggered into the drop ship just as she yelled, 'It's Loki!'

'There are new developments. A lot of new developments. I assume you already met HYDRA's latest experiment?' he questioned, pushing through the delinquents and standing a good distance from Bruce and the others in the drop ship.

'Yeah. Is there a cure?' Clint asked, too worried to be snarky.

'No. That's the whole point. The sickness is designed to weaken you. They're going to attack you tomorrow. The sickness lasts for around two or three days and then it goes away by itself, but it might be too late by then. They're depending on it,' Loki said matter-of-factly, pointedly leaning back from the ill delinquents.

'I'm not staying here any longer, I don't want to die,' Loki muttered, turned on his heel, and stalked away.

'Everyone get away from the drop ship,' Natasha ordered, but her eyes widened and she touched her throat just as dark red blood dripped from her eyelashes, sliding down her cheeks. She turned to Clint but he was already on his hands and knees, violently gagging.

The delinquents backed away, all of them looking panicked. 

'What's going on?' Tony's loud voice carried over everyone else's and the scouting party pushed through the delinquents, arriving at the front and staring wide-eyed at their retching, crying and bleeding friends.

'Steve?' he asked quietly. 'Steve, what the fuck?'

'Tony, you stay right there,' Steve warned, but Tony was already running towards him.

'No, no, don't you dare -' the blond began, but even the two moments of contact with him had Tony with blood dripping from his nose.

The panic really set in, then. Screaming and shouting, the delinquents fought to get away from their sick friends, T'Challa trying his best to calm them down to no avail. 

To Bruce's horror, more delinquents stumbled and fell, desperately trying to contain the flows of blood from their mouths, noses and eyes. The younger kids were crying, losing blood even faster, and the older ones were trying their best to shut them up.

'It's a warzone out there,' Wade choked out, glaring viciously at Rumlow.

'This is your fault -' began Bucky, but Steve cut him off.

'How exactly did you escape, Rumlow?'

'They forgot to lock my cage. I got out. It was easy,' Rumlow spat back, using his already stained shirt to wipe away some of the filth on his face.

'They did it on purpose, they knew he would come here,' Steve muttered, mostly to himself.

'Motherfuckers,' Wade stated, and they all made noises of assent.

Bruce looked back at the bloody carnage outside of the drop ship. The clever ones had made a run for the lookout posts and were sitting up there, far from the sick delinquents. T'Challa was ordering everyone to stay in camp and to not go to the bunker because they didn't know if the Grounders were lying in wait or not.

Bruce watched and wondered where exactly they'd gone so wrong that they had been hit in a vulnerable place, their own camp, their home - and they had been hit hard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey, darlings, new chapter! sorry it's so late, i was really caught up today. not much to say on this chapter. rumlow's back, and that's definitely a bad thing. loki's somehow keeping to his double-agent status quite well. hydra is finally getting off their ass and attacking the delinquents with biological warfare, as you do. bruce and thor are as soft and wholesome as always. people are bleeding from their eyes, noses and mouths and that's frankly quite horrifying but i'm sticking to the plot sooooo... deal with it, i guess, lmao
> 
> well, i'm done here, hope you enjoyed, stay safe, see you tomorrow and lots of love,
> 
> ╰⊱♥⊱╮ღ꧁ $ÂĈRЄÐØßĿĪVĪØИ ꧂ღ╭⊱♥≺


	16. don't let go

Steve looked around the camp, wiping away the blood at the corner of his mouth.

The delinquents were prepared. They were scared, but they were ready for HYDRA. Bucky was prepping the gunners, telling them where to stand, when to shoot and reminding them of the signals they'd set up. Natasha and Clint were out of camp, on the lookout, ready to call Steve if they saw any sign of the Grounders.

The others were stocking up on weapons, food and water. Valkyrie was contacting her girlfriend again, checking on her. The Helicarrier's systems were failing. The oxygen supply was draining faster than ever and they needed to find a way to come down to Earth before they all died.

Steve passed a hand over his face, trying not to think of the Helicarrier. Mrs. Barnes' death had been a crushing blow. She had taken him in when his ma had died, cared for him like her own son, given him the same amount of love she'd given Bucky. He'd sat in his tent and Tony had sat with him, wrapping his arms around him, and Steve had unashamedly sobbed on his boyfriend's shoulder.

Tony himself appeared beside Steve, his dark hair curling at the edges, his usually wicked smile gone, his soft doe eyes focused on Steve.

'Hey,' he said quietly, placing both hands on Steve's biceps, turning him to face him.

'Hey, Tones,' Steve replied, smiling despite himself and accepting the hug, burying his face in Tony's shoulder, breathing in his scent until it surrounded him and overwhelmed him. 

Who would've known that his first kiss would have been the boy with the smart mouth and the chocolate-brown eyes, who he'd despised the first time they met?

Steve wondered when it happened. He'd always thought his first kiss would be Peggy, his first love. It shouldn't have come as a surprise when he fell for Tony, though, considering the fact that he'd loved Peggy so much for her soft brown curls, her sharp wit, her slim hips, her broad shoulders and her ability to kick ass. When she had to move away to her home space station he'd been devastated.

'What're you thinking about?' Tony hummed, his hand on the back of Steve's neck, his dark eyes focused on his face.

Steve shook his head and smiled sadly down at his boyfriend. 'Nothing,' he replied, watching the way the sunlight reflected from Tony's hazel eyes, the way his nose curled up a bit at the end, the way the corner of his mouth quirked up for a moment before he pulled Steve down and kissed him deeply.

Steve's hands raked up Tony's shirt and his nails lightly scratched his boyfriend's abs. The other boy softly moaned into his mouth and tugged on Steve's short blond hair. Steve blushed and Tony grinned, pulling him closer, grinding his body into Steve's.

'Hey, get a room, will you?' someone yelled, and Steve broke away, gasping for breath, his pupils blown wide, staring at Tony who was smirking back.

Steve was about to say something when he started coughing again. Oh, right. The sickness. Tony caught him before he collapsed, eyes wide. 'Steve. You okay?'

'Yeah, um, gimme a moment,' Steve got out, leaning against the drop ship wall, trying to catch his breath. The blood was all across the ground.

Tony wasn't as sick as Steve, much to Steve's relief. He just occasionally had a nosebleed. They'd managed to contain the sickness to some extent, but their some of their best fighters - Steve, Bucky, Wade, Natasha, Clint - were all ill. Natasha and Clint both refused to stay in camp, which was why they were outside, scouting, but Steve forced everyone else to stay where they were.

'Stevie,' Bucky said, appearing out of nowhere. He looked weary and he had blood on his face, but he still managed a grin.

'Hey, Buck.'

'Listen, I was talking to Rumlow, and he said that the only way HYDRA would be able to come to our camp is by crossing that bridge. The river is too deep and too violent in other places. They're most likely going to attack from there. Their main base is across the river and they have some outposts on this side, where Loki kept Stark, but the outposts don't have enough guards for a full-fledged attack,' Bucky said, his voice rushed.

Steve nodded, pulling out his water bottle and taking a swig. 'So we'll watch from that direction. What else?'

'No, that's not what I meant. See, what's the point of letting them cross the bridge in the first place? If we could set up a bomb using that hydrazine stuff then they won't be able to come over, and that'll delay the attack,' Bucky said earnestly.

Steve nodded slowly. 'Sounds good. Maybe it'll even take some of them out.'

Bucky arched an eyebrow. 'Weren't you all for fairplay a few days ago?'

'Yeah, fuck that,' Steve said determinedly. 'They killed your mom and God knows how many other people. I'm all for blowing them up. Tony, can you make a bomb from that stuff?'

'Yeah, I could. If it makes you feel better, it's not a bomb if you scrap it together like that. The official designation is IED—improvised explosive device,' his boyfriend told him.

Steve rolled his eyes, smiling. 'An IED, then. Can you make one?'

'The bridge won't survive me, baby,' Tony said firmly, a glint in his eye, and walked backwards from them, giving them a mock salute.

Bucky turned to him, his grin widening. 'Y'know, a room would be nice.'

Steve shoved his shoulder playfully. 'Shut up.'

'Who's gonna make the shot? To set off the bomb? It's roughly two hundred meters, we checked and came back,' Clint said, having caught the tail end of their conversation, leaning on Natasha. Both of them were disheveled and dirty from their scouting. 

'I will,' Steve said determinedly, and Bucky raised an eyebrow. 'You sure?'

'I'm sure,' he said firmly.

Bucky nodded. 'Don't miss,' he told him.

Steve shrugged. 'Hope I don't.' 

He knew it was a bad idea - he was already weak from the sickness and he had been poisoned and stabbed a few days back, but he wasn't about to let Tony go out there alone and set up the bomb. He wanted to be there with him. 

Steve wheezed and began to retch again. Angrily, he held up a hand, signalling Bucky to stay back, and stumbled into the drop ship, where Bruce and Betty were caring for the sick delinquents. He hadn't felt this bad since the old days, when he was a skinny scarecrow with asthma and around ten other disabilities. 

Natasha followed him. 'I met Loki outside,' she said in a low voice, sitting down next to where he'd collapsed.

He nodded and gratefully accepted the water Bruce handed him.

'What did he say?' he said weakly.

'A lot of things. I asked him to come into camp but he wouldn't. Makes sense, I guess. Anyways, he says he found a way for us to get to Mount Weather without detection. He says that this attack will be the first of many and that HYDRA wants us wiped off the face of Earth. They haven't cleared out Mount Weather, though.'

She paused and waited for that to sink in.

'Mount Weather may have supplies that could be useful to us - like armor, gear, more weapons, that sorta thing. They didn't really explore it. I guess they thought they didn't need all that stuff. Anyways, Loki found a tunnel in one of HYDRA's little outposts and it leads directly into the heart of Mount Weather. It took him a day of walking to get there, though, and he's perfectly fine and jogged most of the way.'

Steve nodded, absorbing all the new information.

'Does he know exactly when HYDRA's going to attack?'

She shook her head ruefully. 'He said he still doesn't know. It's sometime around dawn, though, and the sun's going to rise in around half an hour.'

Steve nodded. 'We need to get that bomb out there quick, then.'

She arched an eyebrow. 'Oh, so _that's_ what Stark's building. He came over to ask me for gunpowder and ignition. By the way, what's your relationship status? How many milestones have you crossed?'

He put his face in his hands so he wouldn't have to look at her sly smile.

'I mean, we kissed,' he said, muffled, into his palms, 'and we're holding hands and are officially boyfriends.'

'That's it? You didn't fuck?'

'What - no!' Steve looked up, blushing, at her incredulous expression.

She sighed. 'Steve, really?'

'I'm just not ready for that -'

'Hey, calm down, I get it,' she told him, and he broke off mid-rant. 'Any other milestones?'

'Like?'

'Y'know. First kiss, first date, first sex, first 'I love you' -'

_'What?'_

'Steve, I told you to calm down. I'm not the one who made them, okay?'

'Well, I can't have a date in the middle of nowhere. And I'm not going to have sex and I don't think either of us are ready for an 'I love you', so...' he trailed off, shrugging to emphasize his point.

She smiled at him. 'That's totally okay. Just - if you really believe he's the one for you, don't let him get away, yeah?'

'Yeah,' Steve said, watching her gracefully get up and walk away.

* * *

Tony had been having a great day, because nothing screams fun like bleeding from three orifices at once, worrying over your sick, unhappy, reckless boyfriend and then building a bomb - IED, whatever - to kill a couple dozen people.

He tried very hard not to think about how terrible his life was as he jogged through the forest, being very careful with his cargo, followed by around five armed delinquents. He'd never thought he'd end up in this situation, not in a million years. It was frankly quite funny if you looked at it from any point of view other than those of the ones doing the actual funny stuff.

'Tones, you okay?' Rhodey asked him quietly.

His best friend had refused to let Tony go out alone. Pepper, who'd forcibly stuck with him even when he told her he was sick, had caught the sickness herself and was now critically ill back at camp, with Betty tending to her. 

And she told him he was a dumbass.

Rhodey had been smarter and paced in front of the drop ship like a caged tiger until Tony came out, cleared by Bruce as mildly ill, recovering and ready to go out and blow shit up.

Now he was tailing Tony, along with Steve, Bucky, Natasha and Thor.

'I'm fine. Totally fine. What makes you ask that, honey bear?' Tony questioned.

Rhodey rolled his eyes. 'I'm being serious, Tones,' he said, in that voice Tony was so used to hearing, a mix of fondness and exasperation.

'I'm as okay as you can get if you're carrying a bomb to blow up a bridge in the middle of nowhere while slowly dying, I guess.'

'I mean, like - about Howard and Maria. Steve told me you saw them after you ate the jobi nuts.'

Tony glared at his boyfriend, who was determinedly avoiding his gaze, and then turned back to Rhodey.

'It was nothing I didn't hear before. You know Dad, he's a dick. Always has been one and always will be one. I'm used to it,' Tony said nonchalantly, shrugging it off.

Rhodey arched an eyebrow at him but before he could say anything else the bridge came into view.

'Go ahead, we'll wait here,' Rhodey told him, 'and we're not done talking, okay? Be careful.'

'Got it,' Tony told him, leaned over, kissed Steve and then walked out into the open, smirking.

He made it around halfway until the sickness came right back.

His head began to spin and he froze. 

Not now. Now was a very, very bad time.

Turns out that vague, obscure sicknesses that made you bleed like a fountain did not listen very well.

Tony didn't have time. He had to keep moving. The sun was already rising and they would all likely die if he didn't get this damn bomb on the bridge.

He took one step forward, tripped, and fell.

_Fuck._

Tony immediately rolled to his side, ignoring the pounding pain in his head. His arms and legs were shaking and he felt liquid sliding down his face and knew it was blood. Was this how Steve and the others felt all the time? It was horrifying. He couldn't even walk properly, his legs were aching.

'Tones!'

'Tony, are you okay?'

'Stark, _get up!'_

'I'm fine!' he yelled back to his friends. 

He was decidedly not fine.

He picked up the bomb and inspected it. Thankfully there didn't seem to be much damage but he would only see if there was actual damage once it was set off, and then it would be too late. By some miracle, the hydrazine was still intact and so was the gunpowder and ignition. The three-part bomb wouldn't be devastating, but it would do a great amount of damage.

Tony angrily wiped away the blood with his sleeve, got up and tried his best not to fall over again. He needed to do this. He was going to do this. They were depending on him.

Thankfully the sickness didn't smack him across the face again.

He made it to the bridge and began to set up the bomb. His hands were still shaking but he worked as quickly as he could, combining the main sections to make a three-part bomb. He knew that if someone had to fire to set it off he had to keep a trigger point so he was extra careful.

He was just finishing it up when Steve yelled, 'They're coming!'

Tony looked up in panic. He wasn't done, he needed more time or else the bomb wouldn't work.

'Hold them off!' he screamed back, urging himself to work faster, but in his hazy state of mind he could barely just go at a normal pace. 

_Come on, Stark, you can do this. This was literally your father's life mission, to manufacture weapons, weren't you paying attention, like, at all?_

He ignored the voice in his head and focused on the task at hand.

The sound of gunshots filled the air and he guessed that the delinquents were taking aim at HYDRA, who he still couldn't see, which was good. If he could see a whole ass army charging at him he would actually curl up and cry.

'Tony, they're almost at the bridge!' Rhodey shouted frantically.

Tony could hear the noise now. Horse hooves, footsteps, metal clanking - he heard an engine, too. His anxiety heightened and he could hear his breath coming in sharp exhales. There was blood dripping onto the ground but he couldn't care less.

'Done!' he said triumphantly, just as the first Grounders emerged from the trees on the opposite bank of the river.

He was in the middle of the bridge. It was really high, he couldn't jump off or he'd die. It was also really lengthy. He needed to run.

He turned on his heel and fled, running in a zig-zag pattern like how Romanoff had told him to do, hoping against hope that he wouldn't get a bullet in him.

'Steve, you have to shoot now!' he whispered harshly into his walkie-talkie.

'What? _No!'_ Steve's voice was crackling but he could hear the indignation in his words.

'You have to!'

'You'll die!'

'I won't, I know what I'm doing!' Tony screamed.

He definitely did _not_ know what he was doing.

'I'm not going to!'

'Steve, I swear -'

'Steve, do it!' someone else said urgently.

'I can't -'

_'Steve!'_

'Fine!'

There was a moment of silence and then the loud bang of a bullet firing.

Tony flinched, tucked into a roll and then came up standing. He whirled around. Steve had missed. The Grounders were almost halfway across the bridge, they still hadn't seen the bomb. 

'Try again!'

This time it was quiet for a longer moment. Tony made it across the bridge and collapsed on the firm ground, crawling towards the bushes where his friends were, and Steve fired again.

_Bang._

Tony's hands were clamped over his ears but the noise was so loud he physically winced. He reached Steve and promptly threw himself into his boyfriend's arms. All his friends were either too stunned or too worried to snicker.

He turned to look at the destruction, his ears ringing. The bridge was demolished, almost fully obliterated. There were bodies in the water and the river was streaked with red. The rest of the Grounders were poised on their side of the bank, watching their comrades get swept by the merciless current.

'You okay?' Steve was saying, his arms around Tony, rubbing his back soothingly.

'Never been better,' Tony replied, catching his boyfriend's lips in a kiss.

'I know you lovebirds have been apart for the entirety of half an hour and you cannot wait to fuck each other again because it's like an eternity for you, but I'm pretty sure HYDRA's firing at us, so care to get a fucking move on?' Bucky yelled.

Ah, there was the snickering. They'd apparently come back to their senses.

'Shut up, Barnes,' Tony told him, but as much of a jerk he was, Bucky was also right. They were being fired at and they needed to get moving or they would die in the forest with blood pouring from their nostrils and gunshot wounds, surrounded by mutant squirrels and hallucination nuts.

Tony decided that was not the way he wanted to go.

He grabbed Steve's hand and they sprinted back to the safety of camp, collapsing into hysterical, wheezing laughter when they reached, covered in dirt and blood but still alive.

They were still alive and they were still together.

He wasn't going to let go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> new chapter, and it's actually done early this time :) bomb stuff - no way am i an expert, again, just following the plot of the 100, all i know is raven made a 3 part bomb with hydrazine, gunpowder and ignition and nothing else. steeb and tony being dumbasses in love and everyone still bleeding like crazy - the normal stuff, obviously.
> 
> anyways, i think i'm done, i'll see you next time, comments and kudos are appreciated, stay safe and lots of love,
> 
> ╰⊱♥⊱╮ღ꧁ $ÂĈRЄÐØßĿĪVĪØИ ꧂ღ╭⊱♥≺


	17. to die with a smile

Natasha was afraid.

She wasn't afraid of failure and punishment, or her ever-growing list of enemies, or that she was going to die - or anything reasonable, really.

She was afraid of her love.

It already made her vulnerable and she hadn't even been on Earth for two weeks. She tried not to show it but she knew she was screwed. She loved Clint, with his brotherly teasing and his tendency to be a dumbass and his lame jokes. She loved her little group of friends - Steve, Tony, Thor and Bruce. She was opening up to Wanda, and to Sam and to Peter.

And she loved James, loved him with all of her heart, which was the scariest love of them all.

She needed to do something about that.

Natasha never had love. Sure, her parents must've cared for her but they died before she could even talk to them properly. And when she was in the Red Room, no one loved her. They all cared about how useful she was. Yelena Belova was maybe the only person who even gave the slightest fuck about her after her parents died, and when Yelena died too, she didn't have anybody.

And she liked it that way. The Widow works best alone.

But of course, this ragtag team of delinquents came along and interfered in her perfectly good plan to ignore people and suck it up by herself for the rest of her life.

She scowled.

Natasha, James, Steve, Clint and Loki were currently making their way to the outpost with the tunnel Loki mentioned. The sickness had died down, just like he'd said, and left most of them weak, some barely clinging to life, and five dead. HYDRA hadn't attempted to attack again. The bridge incident had been two days ago, so Steve thought it was clear and they could go check out the tunnels.

They were walking silently. There was no need for talking and they all knew that. The air was growing colder by the day, and Natasha was freezing but she refused to let it show. They had warm clothes and blankets from the aid depot but not enough to go around. She would bet money that a few more delinquents would freeze to death in the days to come.

'Are you sure that HYDRA won't be manning this outpost?' Steve asked, finally breaking the quiet.

'I'm sure, Rogers, or do you not trust me?' Loki replied silkily.

Steve shook his head. 'I don't, not that it's a secret.'

'Ah, well, at least you're honest about it.' The fourteen-year-old was astonishingly irritating for such a young boy, and he was far too conniving for his age as well. Natasha watched him carefully. She didn't believe that he would take up arms with them if there ever was a full-out war, and she knew Thor shared the same view.

Loki was leading them down the path where Stark had been abducted. He'd told them that the outpost with the tunnels had only been manned to spy on the delinquents and otherwise it was abandoned. Once HYDRA realized they could use Loki as a spy they retreated back to their main base across the river.

'We're here,' Loki announced, when they reached the area where the outpost was supposed to be. 

Clint wrinkled his nose. 'It's just... dirt. And trees. We're still outside.'

'You are a hard man to fool, Barton. What gave it away? Was it the sun? Or the sky? Or the prominent lack of buildings, which means the outpost must be underground?' Loki said icily, sarcasm dripping from his words, and Clint flushed.

Natasha was about to say something in return when Loki crouched, ran his hands over the ground, closed his fist around something and pulled. A section of the forest floor swung open like a trapdoor and Loki turned to them with a flourish, smirking. 

They pushed past him and down into the trapdoor. There were stairs, but it was musty, dark and smelled horrible. Natasha tried her best to breathe through her nose as they made their way through HYDRA's outpost. The stairs led them to a long hallway with several hallways branching off from it. Loki, who seemed to know the place quite well, held a finger to his lips, went ahead, peeked through a doorway and gave them the thumbs-up.

They followed him as he led them down a winding staircase, up another corridor and then stopped at a rusted metal door. 'HYDRA built these tunnels many years ago, when they first came down to Earth. They don't use them anymore because they have full access to Mount Weather, and they don't put any guards here. All the better for us,' Loki told them.

Loki brought out lockpicks from a pocket somewhere in his gear and made short work of the lock. Steve pushed open the door, which creaked and groaned, and stared at the cramped, winding hallway. It looked like a sewage tunnel Natasha had seen pictures of, except without the sewage. It was dimly lit by naked electric bulbs that hung from the rounded ceiling.

'What are you waiting for?' Loki asked, raising an eyebrow.

The delinquents stepped into the tunnel and carefully shut the door behind them.

Natasha knew it would take days of walking to reach Mount Weather, even though there was a minecart system at one point. They'd stocked up on supplies and all of them were carrying backpacks. Loki had assured them that the tunnel had rest stops which led outside and they could refill their water bottles and hunt but they weren't taking any chances.

Natasha shouldered her bag and followed her companions as they walked into the unknown.

She hung out at the back of the group, unwilling to talk to any of her friends. James shot her a concerned look but she didn't say anything to him either. She couldn't let him get closer to her than he already had. She wouldn't. She even stopped speaking to Clint. If she let them break down any more of her walls it would be her downfall.

Of course, they wouldn't let her ignore them in peace. Over the course of the first day, they tried to make simple conversation with her. James refused to leave her side and Clint was as annoying as usual. By the time the second day came along they knew something was wrong and they were trying to apologize for anything they had done, assuming she was mad at them.

'Talia,' James said quietly, falling back to whisper to her so the others up ahead wouldn't hear.

'Yeah?' she asked him, ignoring the butterflies in her stomach whenever he said her name.

'What's wrong? You haven't been talking much at all.'

'Nothing. I guess I'm just tired, is all.'

He arched an eyebrow. 'I call bullshit.'

'Of course you do.'

'Listen, if there's anything wrong you know you can tell us, right?'

'Yeah. I know I can,' she said. _That's the problem_ , her mind added.

He held out his left hand cautiously, looking at her from underneath his dark lashes. She sighed and took it, giving him a small smile, which he returned with a grin of his own. Natasha decided she needed to do something before she ended up like a heroine in a cheap chick flick, sobbing her heart out because some boy broke up with her.

She refused to speak to them again after that.

Thankfully they were too caught up with the more pressing matter at hand - reaching Mount Weather in time. Steve and Tony were talking together, leaving Clint and James to do their weird man-bonding thing. Loki was silent, always at the head of the party, never opening his mouth unless it was to give directions. Once he tugged at the collar of his gear and Natasha saw a snake tattooed on the back of his neck, glaring at her with its onyx eyes.

When the second day drew to a close, Loki announced they were almost at Mount Weather as they sat huddled around a campfire, having taken his suggestion to use a rest stop and go outside to hunt and warm themselves.

Natasha had chosen to keep watch. She looked around at the bodies of her friends, their chests rising and falling in rhythm. Steve was snoring softly, Tony was curled up in a ball, Clint had decided to sleep in a tree, Loki was lying on his back, looking like he was dead, and James - James was nowhere to be seen.

Just as she realized that he appeared at her side, blue eyes dancing, a crooked grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. He was holding out a beautiful eight-petaled white flower and her heart ached at what she was about to do.

'This is for you, Natalia,' he whispered to her quietly, tucking the flower behind her ear, and she smiled weakly.

'Thank you.'

'Do you want me to keep watch?'

'No, it's fine. Listen, James - I wanted to talk.'

He nodded, leaning back, his posture relaxed but his eyes alert. 'Go ahead.'

She played with the hem of her shirt, unsure how to proceed, and then decided to be upfront.

'James... I'm not sure about us anymore.'

He stiffened. She saw him tense and she internally winced, but it was too late to take back her words.

'I'm sorry, but I can't... I can't be in a relationship. It's not working out. For me. I can't do this, James, I'm really sorry, but -' 

'I get it.' His voice was quiet. She arched an eyebrow at him.

'I do get it. It's okay, I understand. If you want to talk about it...' he trailed off hopefully, but she shook her head and watched the last light in his eyes go out.

'Yeah, okay. Listen, go to sleep, Natasha. I'll keep watch.'

She noticed the change of her name. 'I'm sorry,' she repeated quietly, standing up.

He nodded, not looking at her. 'So am I.'

As she curled up in her sleeping bag, the last thing she saw was the white flower, one of its petals torn off, lying on her open palm.

* * *

Clint was going to murder Loki any day soon.

Not only did Thor's rat of a brother continue to mock him every chance he got, he also walked around with his nose in the air, acting like he was better than the rest of him, treating them like they were beneath him. He didn't know what Thor saw in him but Clint knew he wouldn't take it too kindly if Loki was stabbed to death, which was a pity.

They just had another kilometre or so until they reached Mount Weather. So far, they hadn't got any run-ins with HYDRA agents. Clint hoped their luck would continue. The rifle at his hip, the bow in his hand and the quiver across his shoulder were all reassuring but he was far too weak for his own liking, having to stop every few hours because his wound was hurting again.

However, he liked the company. His newfound friends not only seemed to like him, but they even tolerated his jokes, which put them pretty high on his list of people he would choose to go to a deserted island with. Also, they were great at hand-to-hand combat, which meant that Clint no longer had to worry if some dickhead took him by surprise and tried to do him in at close range.

Clint was walking with Natasha, who had decidedly been avoiding them for the entire journey - Bucky especially, he realized - when they finally reached the end of the tunnel.

Loki placed a hand on a blackened metal rung of the ladder and warily looked up. 

'I'm sure it's safe, but one can never be too sure,' he told them, 'which is why I'm not going first. All yours, ladies.'

'You are most kind,' Natasha responded to his jab, pushing past him and gripping the ladder. She made no noise going up even though the ladder looked old and creaky. Daggers were in both her hands and it was a wonder she didn't slice her palms off as she climbed.

'There's a hatch,' she whispered to them, 'with a lock combination. Loki, do you know it?'

'What, do you take me for a fool? Of course I know it. Five-two-eight-zero,' Loki hissed back.

Clint heard her punching in the numbers, and then he heard the soft grating of metal against metal as she carefully twisted the hatch.

'Be careful,' he told her, and he heard her scoff, but he knew she got the message.

They all waited with bated breath at the bottom of the ladder as she opened the hatch and peered out. It was deathly quiet and after a few moments, when there were no angry shouts of guards or gunshots, Clint relaxed and saw the others do the same.

Natasha's boots reappeared and she looked down at them. 'It's fine, you can come up, just be quick about it,' she told them, and gracefully pulled herself out of sight.

Clint followed her, ignoring the pain in his abdomen, and he heard the others coming up after him. Natasha had been right. The place was deserted and as silent as a cemetery. The lack of noise gave him the chills and he stood beside her, taking in his desolate surroundings.

The heart of Mount Weather, or so it was called, was not bare like the other buildings they had seen on Earth. Its walls were made of concrete and steel, that was true, and electric lights were set into the ceiling above their heads, but otherwise it was completely different from the abandoned ruins of the others.

Display cases and counters ran around the room. Tall shelves, cupboards and laboratory equipment were everywhere. The floor was tiled and free of dust and filth, and there were television screens on the walls. Clint leaned forward and tapped a glass display case containing what seemed to be a pair of gauntlets, and beside it was a stack of notes and a tablet which he saw was long drained of battery.

He examined the television screens. They were old-fashioned models from a hundred years ago - flat screen, yes, but otherwise slow and very different from the ones he was used to on the Helicarrier. Behind him, he could hear Tony exclaiming softly at all the gear on display.

'You think some of this stuff still works?' Steve asked, and Clint turned to see him holding up the very same gauntlets he'd been eyeing.

Natasha wandered over to him and took them out of his hands. She slipped them on and picked up the pile of papers which was by the display case. 'I'm sure we could do something if they left, like, manuals. Or at least notes.'

Tony seemed awed. He was completely in his element, excitedly darting from the morningstars to the shiny belt buckles, shuffling through all the notepads and the papers and the material left by whoever used the laboratory last. 

'You bet I can do something with all this!' he told them, grinning like a maniac.

Clint didn't care much for any of the fancy gear and the new age weapons. He made a beeline for the other side of the room, where he saw a template of a diagram of an arrow with added features and several heavy steel boxes that had 'handle with care' stamped on the side.

Explosive arrows, arrows with specially designed arrowheads that could carry messages, carbon-fiber shafts, arrows with narrow spines, barrel-shafted arrows, footed arrows, target arrows, safety arrows, broadheads, steel tips - it was all he dreamt of and more.

'I've died and gone to heaven,' he mumbled, jamming the lock open and reverently lifting up handfuls of the projectiles.

'Same. Funny, always thought I'd end up in the devil's kingdom,' Tony called back.

'Hey, birdbrain, found the bows to your arrows,' Loki called mockingly.

Ignoring the jibe, Clint darted to the Asgardian's side and gaped at the collection of bows. If he thought the arrows were heaven, then the bows were definitely God himself in weapon form.

Natasha snorted, appearing at his side. 'Of course you'd go for this stuff.'

'Yeah, well, it's in my blood, you know. It's calling me. Why're you bothering yourself with the likes of me, anyway? No guns for you to play with?' Clint asked her.

She narrowed her eyes at him. 'You'd be the first one to know if there were guns for me to play with in this place, Barton. You and the remains of your head.'

'Ooh, scary. I'm shaking. I'm absolutely pissing my pants.'

'Good, you're enjoying it. You may not be able to do that in the future if you keep on talking like that.'

'What's going on?' Steve asked, wandering over, his blue eyes wide and his entire being screaming honor. Bless him and his stupid styled hair.

'I'm bow-shopping. She's planning how to first blow my brains out and then castrate me. Nothing out of the ordinary,' Clint told him, his face deadpan.

Steve arched an eyebrow. 'Oh, really? She'd have to change her plans, then. Not sure if there's anything to blow out. Or castrate, too.'

Natasha turned her face to hide her laughter and Clint scowled, but he was trying not to laugh as well.

'Not bad, Rogers. There's hope for you yet. Now, why don't you run along to your boyfriend? Not that I want to see you make out but I hate seeing you mope around like a puppy left in the rain, so...' Clint let his sentence trail off.

It was Steve's turn to scowl. 'I don't mope like a puppy left in the ra - _fuck!'_

Clint was about to comment on Steve's oddly placed expletive when he realized the cause for Steve's swearing and spat out a curse himself.

Guards.

He ducked and rolled, trying not to get shot and nearly shitting himself in fear, but he was internally grinning. Friends. He had friends, people who joked with him, not about him, and teased him with no malice and didn't beat him for getting teased back, people who cared.

He may die, but he would die happy, and that thought was stuck in his mind as he returned fire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sup, babes. new chapter :) as the story proceeds i find myself having increasingly less to say in these little end notes of mine, so... just pretend i said something relevant to the chapter and let's call it a day, shall we?
> 
> i have nothing to say after that incredibly philosophical, deep, heart-jerking end note, so stay safe, see you tomorrow and lots of love,
> 
> ╰⊱♥⊱╮ღ꧁ $ÂĈRЄÐØßĿĪVĪØИ ꧂ღ╭⊱♥≺


	18. fear cuts deeper than swords

They got him a warhammer.

He had been minding his own business, talking to Jane and Darcy while they sorted out the remaining supplies from the aid depot, when his brother, Clint, Natasha, Bucky, Tony and Steve ran into the camp. Tony and Clint were whooping, Steve and Bucky were grinning like idiots, Loki was as condescending as always and even Natasha was smiling.

They were decked out in new clothes - no, gear - complete with utility belts, straps, boots, even a straitjacket-type thing for Bucky. They also had new weapons, which Thor eyed with a good amount of interest. Steve began to explain how Mount Weather had a ton of cool weapons and gear, enough for almost everyone, when Loki wandered over, his smile uncharacteristically sincere.

'I brought back something for you, brother,' Loki said, before Thor could say anything.

Jane arched an eyebrow at him. She knew all about Loki and his tendency to cheat, lie and cause chaos. Thor shrugged, stood up and went over to his younger brother. Loki's eyes narrowed and he stepped back so he wouldn't have to keep his head at a ninety-degree tilt to face Thor properly. His hands were clasped behind his back and he looked like he was struggling with whatever he was holding.

'I was in Mount Weather and I remembered your inexplicable love for hammers,' he continued smoothly, as if he'd never changed his position, as if he wasn't about to fall over from the weight of the item in his hands.

'And what has that got to do with anything?'

'I got you a hammer, you oaf,' Loki finally snapped, swinging the weapon to the front with a considerable amount of effort.

Thor gaped. It was a large, square-headed, gray sledgehammer, with a short, round handle wrapped in brown leather, culminating in a looped lanyard. He reverently took it from Loki and tested the balance. It wasn't lightweight by any means, but he could wield it with far more ease than Loki, and he swung it around, causing Loki to duck and spit curses at him.

'You're going to take my head off!'

'Do not worry. Even a hammer as mighty as this one could not make a dent in a skull as thick as yours,' Thor teased back, surprising himself with the ease at which the insult was delivered. Mocking was Loki's forte, and he'd never been good at it, but there was a first time for everything, and Thor was proud of himself.

Loki scowled as Jane and Darcy began to giggle. He dusted himself off, straightened up and shot a haughty look at Thor, his chin tilted up, in an effort to regain his dignity.

'I will take my leave now. My excuse for staying away covered four days and they will get suspicious.'

'Loki, wait!' Thor called, as his brother stalked out out of the camp.

'Thank you. For the hammer, for helping us, for everything,' he said sincerely, when the younger boy turned.

For a moment, a flash of something - pride, maybe, with a bit of sadness - lit up Loki's cold gaze, and his mouth opened a little, as if he was going to say something, but then he shut it after reconsidering. He simply nodded at Thor, slipped out of the gates and vanished from sight.

'Hey, man. Loki gave that to you?' 

Clint had appeared out of nowhere. Behind him were Thor's other friends. Thor grinned and joyfully swung the hammer again, causing Clint to duck, stagger back and curse much in the same way Loki had.

'It is wonderful!'

'Yeah, buddy, just don't accidentally kill one of us, okay? That thing was heavy. We took turns carrying it back but Loki was slumming it more than the rest of us. I think it was really important to him or else he wouldn't have done it. You know Loki.'

Clint's words were nonchalant but his description of Loki sent a pang through Thor's heart. His brother had taken the extra effort to carry back a heavy metal hammer so Thor could be happy. He hadn't thought of it that way. Maybe there was hope for Loki after all.

Thor hefted the hammer over his shoulder. 'It deserves a name.'

Tony scoffed. 'A name? What, like Bob the Hammer?'

'No, a glorious name. Bob does not strike fear into anyone's heart.'

'How dare you? Bob is a _fearsome_ name. Absolutely terrifying. Do _not_ insult Bob.'

Thor frowned at the Stark boy, who was grinning at him. He could not tell if his words were the truth or merely a jibe.

'Well, Bob is not very terrifying to me, in any case. I think I shall call it Mjolnir.'

Tony frowned. _'Mjolnir,'_ he repeated, testing the name on his tongue. 'How is that spelled again?'

'M-j-o-l-n-i-r.'

'Muh-jol-nir? Weird.'

'Mjolnir is the name of that Norse god's hammer, isn't it?' Natasha questioned.

He nodded. 'The god of thunder is my namesake! I will honor him in both character and choice of weapon,' he declared.

Clint wrinkled his nose. 'Wow, your family's obsessed with Norse mythology.'

'Small wonder. They live on _Asgard,_ Clint.' Natasha's voice was dry.

'Yeah, but you gotta know when to stop, man. His entire life is some kind of cosplay because of some nutcase ancestor - no offense, Thor.'

Thor ignored Clint and Natasha's bickering and wandered away from them. He liked his friends, but their customs were different from his and they used far too much figurative language and sarcasm for him to hold a proper conversation with them.

The camp was abuzz with activity. Steve and Bucky were explaining the journey to Mount Weather and were setting up scouting parties to get more gear and weapons. Everyone wanted to go and get stocked up. Some of them, like Bruce, Jane, Darcy and Pepper opted to stay back, either because they didn't want weapons or didn't need them.

Thor walked over to Shuri, who was holding the black box from the Exodus ship. They'd cleared out that area, taking back all the usable scrap metal for materials to build the wall and help make weapons. Shuri was using the radio of the Exodus ship to make more walkies. Previously there only had been three - now there might be enough for around ten delinquents.

Loki had told them about HYDRA's attack plans before they left for Mount Weather and Thor ran it through his head again. HYDRA was not going to attack them for a few more days. They'd bought themselves time by bombing the bridge but HYDRA would soon find another way to cross the massive river.

HYDRA didn't have any airborne vehicles, which was their only hope. They needed to either find a place where the river was shallow enough to cross with all their equipment intact - which would be quite a distance away from the delinquent camp, judging by the force of the river - or they had to design waterproof equipment. Both options would take a long time.

They had also contacted the Helicarrier, although help from space was very unlikely. Carol Danvers was their go-to for communication. Nick Fury was almost always busy and Maria Hill would only talk to them if it was something important or something concerning politics, so the blonde girl would dutifully stay in the communications room and took almost all their calls.

She'd reported of the situation in the Helicarrier. Most of the people were weak from lack of oxygen and the very young and the very old were already dead. The catastrophic damage from the untimely drop of the first Exodus ship was nowhere near fixed. Fury had been talking to the other space stations but they were either unwilling or unable to help, seeing as none of them had space for around two thousand people.

She had good news, though. All of the Helicarrier's mechanics and engineers were on working on the second Exodus ship - the bigger one - to get it ready before the oxygen supply ran out. Maybe if they could coordinate with another space station and send maybe a thousand people out of the Helicarrier they could get it done quicker and faster and could come down to Earth.

Thor didn't care much for that. He was worried about the people, sure, but he knew the Helicarrier's Exodus ship wouldn't come down in time. HYDRA would attack them far before reinforcements arrived, and they needed to be prepared. It steeled his resolve. He was afraid, but he also knew that fear cut deeper than any weapon, and he needed to keep his wits about him or else he would end up like the fifteen delinquents in the makeshift graveyard.

Mjolnir was reassuringly heavy in his hands. 

* * *

Bruce wasn't one for open confrontation, and neither was he much for communication.

Those qualities weren't very helpful to him but he never needed to talk much anyway, since he had spent most of his life studying and in the laboratory. He never thought he'd need them. Of course, he had been wrong.

Bruce had been in the makeshift med bay, treating a scratch that one of the delinquents had gotten while out hunting. It was a long scratch but it was shallow and looked worse that it actually felt. He just needed to clean the wound, put antiseptic and then wrap a bandage around it, and the delinquent would go back to normal activity.

Once he had finished that he had gone outside for some fresh air. Bruce found himself spending longer and longer hours indoors and the stress was taking a toll on him. He knew it was dangerous to be out of camp walls - even though the bunker wasn't even that far from camp - but the promise of peace and quiet was far too much for him to resist.

He had been sipping water and observing a butterfly hop from flower to flower when he heard a snap in the woods behind him.

Bruce had immediately fallen into a crouch and ducked behind the tall foliage, hoping the fronds of the bush were wide enough to obscure him. He was facing the direction the noise had come from and he had slipped a knife from his boot, prepared to defend himself if necessary, and he had tried to catch sight of whatever made the noise.

He had been sitting in a crouch for around five minutes, his thighs and calf muscles beginning to burn with the effort, and he had just come to the decision that the noise was made by some critter in the woods and he was being silly, when he heard voices talking.

Voices that did not sound like children's voices at all.

The logical thing was to get out of there, talk to Steve, get backup and chase away the intruders. HYDRA so close to camp was a massive danger and they needed to get rid of it. But Bruce was frozen in place. He couldn't move. He didn't dare move. He tried to control his breathing so he wasn't panting in fear and moved aside a frond just a little bit to catch a glimpse of the intruders.

He caught sight of black boots. He counted six. That meant there were three people. The black boots were part of HYDRA agents' gear. Loki had told them that the low-tier HYDRA agents all wore the same kind of gear, which was full black and just had the HYDRA symbol above the left breast.

Bruce tried to catch sight of the HYDRA agents' faces, but he was too afraid to wiggle into a better position for fear that they would see the bushes shaking and investigate. Instead, he focused on the conversation happening.

'- you, boy, have been nothing but an annoyance to us. I wonder why Pierce even allowed you to live,' a rough, deep voice was saying.

'Don't question Pierce unless you want to end up dead. I'm sure he had his reasons.' The second voice was higher and smoother but most definitely male.

'I do many things that you are not aware of, my friend,' a third, very familiar voice said. It was silky, drawling and most definitely Loki. 

Bruce worked hard not to show his surprise or make any noise which would give him away. Of course it was Loki. _He's supposed to be here,_ he told himself, _he's a double agent, he's working for us but pretending to be HYDRA._ Yet he still wasn't convinced. There was something off. He decided to stay and listen to Loki.

'Fine, then. You tell me what information you got and then I'll decide if I slit your throat and call it self-defense,' the rough voice growled.

'Well, for starters, they are not ready for you at all. If you attacked tomorrow they'll all be dead in a few hours. Most of the delinquents are still recovering from the sickness and there are fifteen dead, so that would make the total amount of delinquents eighty-five,' Loki said.

All of what he said was true. The delinquents weren't ready. Only five of them had proper gear and the rest just had assault rifles with a very limited amount of ammunition. HYDRA undoubtedly could crush them. The only hope the delinquents had was the lack of a bridge. And the graveyard needed to be expanded. After Pietro's death the body count kept rising.

Nothing was off yet. As far as Bruce knew, Steve had instructed him to tell parts of the truth and make it sound like important information or else if he was found out, they would kill him. He'd been told only to tell harmless truths, however, like the body count. HYDRA wouldn't benefit from knowing exactly how many delinquents were dead if they didn't know anything about the ones who were alive.

Bruce decided he would stay for a bit longer and then try and make his escape. His leg muscles were aching.

'That's not very useful, Laufeyson,' the smooth voice stated.

'Yeah, well, did I say it was? I've got better information for you. There's a section in the river only a few miles from here where the water can easily be cut off by making some sort of dam, since the river's banks are higher than the river itself at that point. If you block it up and take your equipment to the other side you can be here in just a few hours,' Loki told him succinctly.

Bruce froze. He knew for a fact that Loki hadn't told any of them about the dam in the river. _Calm down, it's not what you think, maybe he was going to tell you afterwards_ , Bruce tried to reassure himself. He decided to scratch his plan of escaping. He would sit there until the HYDRA agents left and then he would watch Loki very carefully.

'That's the only good thing I've heard from you in over a week. Maybe you aren't so bad,' the rough voice said, and Bruce heard a tinge of satisfaction in the speaker's tone.

'I'm honored,' Loki replied sardonically.

'Well, it seems our business here is wrapped up, unless you got something else,' the smooth voice said, and Loki must have shook his head because the voice continued, 'Alright. We're gonna take this to Pierce and you can run along back to your little friends.'

Again that name. Bruce would have to ask Loki about it.

There was a mumbling exchange of goodbyes and Bruce saw two pairs of boots walk away, towards the river in the opposite direction of camp. Loki hesitated, standing there for a few moments, before spinning around and heading to the camp.

Bruce finally stood up. His legs were hurting but he knew he had to do something before he could get rest. He followed Loki, staying at a good distance so the boy wouldn't notice him, all the way back to camp. He was let in by the guards and Bruce jogged to catch up before they closed the gate.

As soon as he was in camp he went directly to where Loki was standing, talking to Steve.

'Any new developments?' Steve asked casually, and Bruce stopped a few feet away, brushing off Betty who'd come to ask him something. 

'Yeah, some. HYDRA isn't going to attack you for a few days, but you already knew that. They finally told me the name of their gang leader,' Loki said proudly.

Steve gaped. _'Really?_ Who?'

'Some high-born prat named Alexander Pierce.'

'No _way._ Pierce as in _Councilman_ Pierce? Fury's _right-hand man_ , Pierce?'

So that's where he'd heard the name.

'The very same. I assume you'll have to contact that blonde and tell her who's on the Council with her?' Loki questioned.

Steve nodded. 'Yeah, I'll do it right away. Anything else?'

Bruce waited, tense, for Loki to tell him about the river. 

'No,' Loki said smoothly.

'Okay, then. I'll see you later, Laufeyson.' With that, Steve whirled around and headed towards the communications tent. Bruce ran after him.

'Steve, wait!'

'What?'

'I have something I need to tell you. About Loki.'

'Okay, do it fast,' Steve said impatiently, tension in his shoulders.

'He might be keeping information from us.'

_'What?'_

Bruce quickly explained all he'd done and heard in the woods, and Steve's face darkened.

'I'll have to keep a watch on him. I'll send a team down the river to check if he was lying. In the meantime, just be careful around him, okay?'

Bruce nodded and was about to go when a commotion from the other side of camp stayed him.

Someone was screaming for help and the others were all clamoring together. A crowd had gathered outside the drop ship. Steve furrowed his eyebrows and jogged over to the chaos. A girl was half-sobbing, half-shouting as she explained what was happening to those around her.

'Hey, hey, calm down, okay? What's going on?' Steve said authoritatively, pushing through the crowd.

The girl seemed to collect herself and turned to Steve. Bruce recognized her as Pepper Potts. She wiped away her tears and faced them with steely eyes.

'Rumlow has a gun. Rumlow _got a gun_ and he's holding Tony hostage in there and he won't let any of us through.' 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello, my lovelies~ new chapter! lmao thor finally got mjolnir. i stressed a lot on mjolnir because mjolnir is a poor baby who deserves more respect and recognition, change my mind. the plotline is going off the tracks - i know none of this happened in the actual show BUT it's my story, even though i own neither marvel nor the 100, so i'll make it go off the tracks if i want to :) also i forgot about rumlow and just realized he existed maybe half an hour ago so i had to give him a dramatic moment, sorry not sorry~
> 
> yep, that's it from me, stay safe, see you all tomorrow and lots of love,
> 
> ╰⊱♥⊱╮ღ꧁ $ÂĈRЄÐØßĿĪVĪØИ ꧂ღ╭⊱♥≺


	19. young love dies hard

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning: description of death by hanging. if you cannot handle it or if it affects you in any way then please skip this chapter.

Steve was panicking.

The camp had been in uproar. Pepper had told them what had happened and how Rumlow had gotten his hands on a gun in the first place. A delinquent had been guarding him while Tony was upstairs, working on the walkie-talkies. Apparently the delinquent didn't tie Rumlow's bonds well enough and Rumlow managed to wriggle out of them and overpower him.

Tony had been coming down when he caught Rumlow suffocating the guard with a plastic bag. He went for the dead delinquent's gun but Rumlow got there first and held it to his head, telling all the delinquents watching that he would shoot Tony if they tried to make a move for him. He then shut the drop ship doors and proceeded to declare that Tony was his hostage.

Steve asked him what his terms were, and he had told him that he would only release Tony only on the condition that he got justice for what happened to him. Steve asked him what justice meant for him, and Rumlow had simply replied, ‘Justice means an eye for an eye.’ 

Steve knew what he had to do. Rumlow’s unfair prosecution had been nagging at him ever since he banished the delinquent. Steve knew Rumlow was a horrible person but he didn’t deserve death for something he didn’t do, and no matter how much he hated him, Steve knew he needed to play fair or he would never get a peaceful night’s sleep ever again. 

He was about to open his mouth when Pepper beat him to it. 

‘I’ll go!’ she screamed angrily. ‘I’ll go in place of Tones, just let him out, Rumlow!’ 

Steve heard a muffled _‘No!’_ from inside the drop ship and then came Rumlow’s maniacal laughter. ‘What would I do with you, Potts? My justice is not delivered. Save yourself the time and just walk away. You can’t do anything.’ 

‘I’ll go,’ Rhodey said determinedly, pushing past Steve and heading for the drop ship. 

Rumlow’s laughter continued. ‘You’re wasting my time. I have no need for Stark’s little friends.’ 

Steve held them back and glared at the drop ship doors. ‘Is it justice you want, Rumlow?’ he yelled, and there was a pause. 

‘Isn’t justice what everyone wants?’ the boy replied. 

‘Then it’s justice you’ll get. Let him go and take me instead. I know I’m the one you want.'

‘Steve, no!’ Bucky said furiously, lunging forward and grabbing his arm, but Steve pushed him off. 

‘Buck, I gotta do this, please,’ he told his oldest friend, and Bucky must have seen the anguish and desperation in his voice because he fell back reluctantly, jaw set. 

Steve heard violent protesting from inside the drop ship in Tony’s muffled tones, and then he heard a thud and all was silent. He heard someone punching buttons and then slowly the drop ship door ground open. Everyone tensed and Steve held out his arm to push back the other delinquents. 

Rumlow jammed the door halfway through by pressing another button so there was enough gap for people to go in and come out, but not enough for them to overpower him. What was visible of his face through the gap was swollen and twisted into a psychotic grin. 

‘I have a gun here, and I’m gonna blow your boy’s brains out if you try anything funny,’ he warned. 

Steve held both his hands up in a gesture universally associated with surrender. ‘I’m not going to do anything funny. See? I’m dropping my gun. I’m completely unarmed. Just let him go and I’ll come in.’ 

‘No,’ Rumlow told him, still smiling, ‘you come in first and I let him go.’ 

‘Steve –’ Bucky began warningly, but Steve was already squeezing through the drop ship door. 

Once he was through, Rumlow seized a gagged and tied-up Tony and shoved him outside, immediately closing the door once he was through. Steve warily backed away from his arch-nemesis. 

Rumlow didn’t look anything like the boy who had punched him in the face a year and a half ago. HYDRA’s torture had brutally scarred his face and body, and he didn’t even look human anymore. He looked like the man with the red skull Steve had seen on the bridge.

'Rogers, my old friend,' he said mockingly, raising the firearm and pointing it at Steve's forehead.

Steve tried not to let his fear show. He knew Rumlow enjoyed having control over the situation, playing with Steve's life. He wouldn't give him the satisfaction of knowing Steve was absolutely terrified.

'What do you gain from doing this?' Steve asked Rumlow, hoping to buy himself time. 

Rumlow hesitated, but the pistol didn't move from Steve's head. 'I don't need to tell you why I'm doing this, Rogers,' he said roughly, 'and besides, I think you already know.' 

'I don't, as a matter of fact. Could you perhaps enlighten me?' 

'Don't bullshit me,' Rumlow said angrily. 'You know damn well why this is happening, and you can't lie your way out. Get over there, now.' 

Steve's eyes darted to the direction Rumlow pointed in, keeping the other boy and the barrel of the gun in his peripheral vision at all times. Rumlow had indicated the far left corner of the drop ship, which wasn't cluttered by any supplies or seats. It used to be a living space for the delinquents before Steve moved them all out to make space for the sick. 

After the quarantine was over, he needed a place to put Rumlow before he sent him on his way, so he'd shoved him in the drop ship and no one had objected. The drop ship hadn't been cleaned and there were splatters of blood everywhere. Besides, he know some of the delinquents thought it was cursed. They had unanimously elected to use it as a temporary prison cell. 

Steve edged towards the corner, keeping his eyes on Rumlow at all times, taking slow, careful steps. He knew it would be hopeless but he was trying his best to buy himself time. He would die, but he would die with the last bit of dignity he had, no matter how small. He wasn't going to show any fear or weakness. 

Rumlow didn't deserve it. 

'Hurry up,' the other boy snapped, clearly getting impatient. He cocked the pistol, as if to remind Steve that he could kill him at any time, but Steve wasn't convinced. Rumlow would've shot his brains out long before he could even open his mouth if his main objective was to just kill Steve and be done with it. 

He wanted Steve to die in one specific way, and Steve had an unpleasant feeling that he knew what was coming. 

'I'm trying not to trip,' Steve offered weakly, and Rumlow grunted. 

'Don't care. Get your ass in position.' 

Steve made it to the far left corner and waited. Rumlow moved forward, finally letting the pistol drop to his side. Steve immediately began to scan the drop ship. With the threat of the bullet no longer keeping him frozen, he could look for an object to possibly overpower Rumlow with. 

He wished he had his shield. He had recovered a shiny metal shield in the shape of a circle from Mount Weather. Clint had been derisive of his choice and, on the way back, tried to demonstrate how useless the object was by firing his assault rifle at it. The bullet didn't even leave a dent. Steve had been impressed, although Clint continued to mock him. 

However, he'd left all his gear and weapons outside when bartering for Tony's life. 

That was all that mattered in that moment, and all that mattered now. 

_Tony._

As Rumlow shoved a box under his feet and began to tie a rope from a hook in the ceiling, Steve focused his mind on Tony's warm hazel eyes and his wickedly tilted eyebrows, his charming smile and his way with words, his deft hands and sharp wit. 

And by the time Rumlow was done with the makeshift noose, he was ready for death. 

He was ready and waiting. 

His only hope was that Bucky understood why he was doing this, why he'd given up everything for a boy who he had known for just over two weeks. Bucky surely wouldn't understand. He never understood half the things Steve did, but he went along with Steve anyway, defending him to the very last, and that was why Steve loved him so. 

Or maybe he _would_ understand. Steve knew of his relationship with Natasha, and Bucky hadn't gotten over her, not by a long shot. He wanted to hear his oldest friend's familiar laugh, which he hadn't heard properly for more than two years. He wanted to explain to Tony how much he meant to Steve, how much Steve would sacrifice for him, how much he was loved. 

If only he wasn't about to die. 

'Stand on the box,' Rumlow snarled. 'You're going to hang yourself, and I'm going to watch. You better do it or I'll go out there and put a bullet in your pretty boy's head.'

Steve didn't have a choice.

He reached up and pulled the noose around his neck.

'One last thing,' he said softly, pausing his actions.

Rumlow raised an eyebrow.

'Is it an apology you want? Even if it isn't, I want to tell you I'm sorry. I'm really sorry for letting that happen to you, and I want you to know I didn't sleep peacefully for days ever since I told you to get out.' 

Steve was trying to be as sincere as he could but the apology sounded fake and bland to his own ears. He knew it wouldn't have worked, not by a long shot, but he just needed Rumlow to know he regretted everything that had happened to him.

'I want you to feel what I felt,' Rumlow said roughly, 'and I want you to die.'

* * *

Tony didn't let himself stop to think. 

He couldn't afford to. 

Every moment he dwelled on his situation was a moment lost, maybe the last moment for Steve. He had to keep working, keep moving, or else he would sink into a dark place he hoped he would never see after his father publicly disowned him. 

How long had it been since Steve went in? Two minutes? Ten? Twenty? He had no idea. All he knew was that the love of his life had just sacrificed himself for Tony's sake, and Tony needed to get him back before he was murdered by Rumlow. 

As soon as Steve had entered the drop ship, Rhodey and Pepper had removed his gag and bonds. His friends had immediately crowded around him, speaking in low voices. 

'Tones, are you okay?' was the first question he had received, and he had stood up, pushing them all away. 

'I'm fine, Pep, but Steve isn't, and we need to get him back,' he had said urgently. 

'I was thinking about how we should do that,' Barnes had said quickly, 'do you think there's any way we can get under the drop ship? Then from there we can either go up or -' 

'Yeah, we can,' Tony had interrupted, realizing that Barnes was right. 'We can go under it but we can't break through the floor. We'd need saws and drills and it'll take a long time, not to mention Rumlow'll probably hear it. I think if we get under I can hot-wire the drop ship doors open and we can storm Rumlow.' 

Bucky had nodded. 'Someone get a shovel!' he had yelled, turning away from Tony. 

Tony was now circling the drop ship, looking for an area where the soil was softer and easier to remove. He was breathing fast and trying to walk as quickly as he could. Bucky arrived with shovels and their other friends, all of them with tight, anxious faces. 

'Alright, start digging here,' Tony instructed, 'and try to make as less noise as possible.' 

He took one of the shovels himself and began to plow away at the dirt, clearing out a section large enough for them to go underneath the ship. He knew that there was a small bottom level in the drop ship, beneath the seats, where all the wiring and the battery and the other technical stuff which couldn't be included in the walls or control room were located. 

If they got into that area they could find the wires to manually open the drop ship door. If only they could tell Steve that he needed to distract Rumlow as much as possible. 

Tony had asked one of their friends if they could cause a small distraction if necessary but he knew it was too risky, in case they spooked Rumlow and simply speeded up Steve's death. 

They had been furiously digging for just under a minute when Barnes' shovel hit something metal with a sharp clang. Everyone jumped and winced, waiting to hear the inevitable bang of the gunshot, but there was nothing. 

Then Rumlow called out, his voice muffled by the walls separating them, 'You can't get the doors open, don't try!' 

Tony relaxed and gestured for them to step away. Rumlow thought they were trying to force the doors open with brute strength. Let him think that. 

Tony crouched in front of the worn metal and got to work on it. Two weeks of it being underground, exposed to dirt and insects and meddling creatures had not been beneficial in any way to the metal. 

It was quite easy to remove a small section of the metal without making much noise, and anyway Rumlow thought they were still shoving objects between the drop ship doors to somehow lever them open. 

Tony crawled into the cramped bottom level of the drop ship. It didn't even count as a level, just as a small storage-type compartment. He could barely stand up straight and he was short compared to his friends. When Barnes crawled in after him, he had to crouch. 

'Don't make any noise,' Tony whispered. 'I need to find the wires and I'll try to get them to work. Be careful, there's a ton of hydrazine here from the crash.' 

He realized he could hear the conversation happening above them and he tried to listen while looking for the wires. 

'You're a coward, Rogers,' came Rumlow's grating voice, 'you should've stopped them that day. You should've said something. They would've listened.' 

'I know,' Steve's voice came in reply, and both Tony and Barnes nearly collapsed in relief. 'I keep thinking about it. I know I'm a coward.' 

Steve sounded so defeated. Tony's heart ached for him. 

'Knowing isn't enough. Now it's too late. Rollins and Sitwell are dead, and the rest of your little friends will be, too. HYDRA's too strong. You can't stop them.' 

'But I can try,' Steve replied, and then gasped. Tony guessed that Rumlow was strangling him and he almost sobbed in relief when he found what he thought were the right wires. 

'Get out and get ready,' he whispered to Barnes, 'I'll get these doors open.' Barnes nodded and crawled back out. He heard him relaying Tony's message to the others.

Tony began to work on the wires. He knew if he had to hot-wire the doors open he had to find the circuit for the buttons and manipulate it so he could get the doors open manually, or at least deactivate the circuit so Barnes and the others could break down the doors.

He was working too fast. He accidentally sparked a few wires together and they made a sizzling noise, startling him and making him fall back onto the floor with a clang.

There was a long pause.

'Who's there?' Rumlow yelled, and Tony's heart sank.

Immediately there was a round of gunshots. Tony went back to working on the doors, trying hard not to think what it meant.

He heard a thud and then Rumlow's voice again. 'Woah, don't try to loosen it, that's cheating!'

There was another thud and then a gasp, as if someone had just taken a deep breath. Tony strained his ears as he worked. He could hear fighting - punches landing on flesh, grunting, loud thuds and an occasional yell. 

He knew then that Steve was still okay and was fighting. He needed to get the doors open.

After a few minutes Tony finally managed to connect the right wires, disable others and change the circuit, and he heard the familiar grinding noise as the doors of the drop ship began to open.

He heard one last thud and then angry yelling from Steve.

Tony crawled out of the bottom level of the drop ship and went around the side to where the doors were. There was a lot of shouting. He picked out Steve's as the loudest. He shoved through the crowd that was around the doors and managed to stumble inside.

Steve was angrily banging on the hatch, flanked by Tony's other friends. Apparently Rumlow had fled up to the top level of the drop ship. There was no reply, and then suddenly there was a loud bang.

Tony ran out and tried to go around to the side, but there were too many people in his way. By the time Steve and the others reached, they found Tony staring up at a hole in the second level of the drop ship which opened out to the woods.

'There was a barrel of gunpowder up there. He must've used it to make the hole. He's long gone now.' Tony's voice sounded distant and flat to his own ears.

He turned to Steve, ignoring everyone around them, gazing into his boyfriend's trusting blue eyes.

'You're okay.' It wasn't a question, it was a statement.

Steve smiled a charming smile which melted Tony's heart. 'I'm okay.'

Half-sobbing, Tony flung his arms around Steve's neck.

'Don't you dare sacrifice yourself for me ever again!' he said angrily into Steve's shoulder.

'That I cannot promise.'

'Then stop putting yourself in harm's way unnecessarily.'

'I will.'

'I love you.'

The words came unbidden. There was a pause and Tony realized what he'd said in his blind panic. He winced, wishing he could take it back, but the damage was done. He waited for what Steve would say.

'I love you, too,' was Steve's soft reply.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yay, new chapter! i think i'm probably going to stop doing daily chapters because it's taking a massive toll on me, especially since i have a lot of other stuff to work on, so i suppose i'll do one chapter every two days. i'll try to do daily updates when i can but i don't think i can promise it. anyways, steve&tony angst and their first 'i love you's! ack! this fanfic is nearing its end and i'm so happy. thank you to all who commented and left kudos, it made my day and was the reason i continued to write.
> 
> that's all from me, stay safe, see you all next time and lots of love,
> 
> ╰⊱♥⊱╮ღ꧁ $ÂĈRЄÐØßĿĪVĪØИ ꧂ღ╭⊱♥≺


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